Double Feature

October 2007 - Prepare to be scared. This month, as we celebrate Halloween and all things spooky, let's check out a couple of movies guaranteed to give you the creeps – or at least a few goose bumps.

May is an R-rated horror flick (aren't they all?) from 2002 starring Angela Bettis (Girl, Interrupted), Jeremy Sisto (Six Feet Under) and Anna Faris (from the Scary Movie movies). The plot can basically be summed up as follows: A girl named May (Bettis) grows up with a doll named Suzie as her best friend. But, May is unable to find a real-life friend or mate as perfect as Suzie. So, she decides to make one out of human body parts. That's bad news for Adam (Sisto) because May really likes his hands. Her co-worker (Faris) has a lovely neck. Another woman has really great legs. You see where this is going, right?

Overall review: Ehhh, it was OK. May is interesting to look at - in a freak show kind of way - and it's not boring. But, I'm not sure what the point is supposed to be. Maybe that no one is perfect? You have to take the good with the bad? Having an imperfect friend is better than having no friends? Don't play with dolls? I don't know.

Here's something I do know. In the early Nineties, Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson were husband and wife. With their youthful energy, charming British accents and a fondness for Shakespeare, Ken and Em appeared ready to assume the role of Hollywood Super Couple. I think that Branagh's ego and, ironically, his film version of Frankenstein eventually got in the way. But, before everything went bust, the couple put on bad American accents and teamed up to star in a neat little 1991 film, the R-rated Dead Again.

Thompson plays a woman haunted by chilling nightmares. The dreams are so terrifying that she sleepwalks her way to a Catholic orphanage where she wakes up with a bad case of amnesia and an inability to speak. The kind folks at the orphanage call on P.I. Mike Church (Branagh). He decides to call the woman "Grace" and sets out to find out who she is.

The search leads to Franklin (Derek Jacobi), who runs an antique shop and is also skilled in the ways of hypnosis. He takes Grace back to a previous life in which lovers named Margaret and Roman happen to look an awful lot like Grace and Mike.

Overall review: Liked it. I saw this movie when it first came out and liked it a lot. It's not quite as surprising the second time around because the clues are more obvious. But, it's still enjoyable. There are two very memorable scenes. One is enough to make any smoker quit on the spot. In the other, one of the characters meets a very gruesome fate. The supporting cast includes Andy Garcia, Wayne Knight (Newman from Seinfeld) and Robin Williams.