‘May’, Lucky McGee, 2003

The film ‘May’, directed by Lucky Mcgee, belongs in the horror genre, but more specifically in psychological horror. You can tell this from the many conventions featured in the opening sequence. The very first shot we see, after the credits, is of a girl screaming and looking in a mirror holding her hand over her eye, as it is bleeding a significant amount, connoting that someone has just ripped her eye out against her will. Although this scene is more related to a slasher horror movie, it is still a convention of a horror movie. Throughout the opening sequence, it features a young girl growing up. However on her first day of school she is wearing an eye-patch due to a lazy eye which she must wear for her childhood, and is shown to be isolated from everyone else because of this. This use of childish innocence is often associated with horror films, because they are the opposite to the more satanic aspects of life, such as an anti-christ, and give a contrast, perhaps creating an enigma. The generic expectations are fulfilled due to the constant connotations associated with horror movies, they are made very clear and can be easily understood. The text conforms to the expected characteristics of the genre, although there are only a few aspects used.

The mise-en-scene in a film, is vital to show the audience what is happening in the scene, and therefore related to the rest of the text. When the young girl is seen on her first day of school, the mise-en-scene featured is a stark contrast to the verbal and non-verbal language being used. She is seen a school playground, which has a vast amount of grass, on a sunny day. She is wearing a warm yellow dress and there has been some editing used post-production to highlight the colours, and show everything in a warmer or brighter tone. The girl has long light brown hair and is attractive, similar to her mother who is talking to her. The usual mise-en-scene in a typical horror film would be dark stock locations, old buildings and perhaps supernatural activities, which this obviously is not. A later scene is of the girl on her birthday, perhaps her eighth birthday. She is seen blowing out the candles on her cake, when her mother brings in present, all of this is again relevant to the childish innocence featured in horror films. However the present is the first doll that her mother ever made. It is carved out of wood in quite a jerky way, which gives it a rather demented face, and the colours used for her clothing are red and black, her skin deathly pale. The box she is presented in has a glass front, but is shaped like a coffin with dark mahogany wood. Although this just denotes a doll, it connotes a much sinister feeling, that it is perhaps a doll corpse or perhaps a voodoo doll or something. One of the opening shots is of the young girl looking in the mirror whilst her mother fusses over her, styling her hair so that the eye patch doesn’t show. This scene opens with a BCU of the young girl’s upper face, while she asks her mother why she has to wear the eye patch. This camera shot has been used so that we can see she has a lazy eye and as this part of the head is where the brain is, this shot could be used as a signifier to the beginning of her psychological problems. When the scene of the girl’s first day at school opens, there is a medium shot used, and this is used as an establishing shot. The establishing shot is used so that we can see the location and the main characters featured in the frame. The girl is standing in the playground alone, when a boy comes up to her and asks if she’s a pirate because of her eye patch. A jump shot is used throughout the brief conversation, to show the other’s reactions. The boy then runs away to his friends and the girl is once again left on her own, and there is high angle shot used whilst zooming out, to make her appear even more isolated as she appears smaller and smaller with the absence of anyone else. When the scene of the girl’s birthday opens, a medium long shot has been used as again an establishing shot. But in contrast to the homely location, a close up shot has been used on the doll to replace the feelings of homeliness to ones of fear. Throughout the opening sequence there is a piece of music used constantly, and although is not loud or with a high tempo, it is still quite eerie. The opening shot of this sequence, of a young woman holding her bleeding eye socket, features her screaming loudly in pain. This connotes clearly someone has attacked her and feelings of again fear and horror. This immediately associates itself with horror films, as violent attacks are conventions of a horror film. There is a sound bridge used between the scene of the young girl at school and the scene of her and her family on her birthday. The sound bridge used is the song ‘Happy Birthday’, and has had an edited echoed affect put on it until we are at the scene of the birthday celebrations. The echo again gives it a rather sinister feel, and the childish song again reverts back to the childish innocence aspects of horror films. Throughout the opening of the film, the mother is portrayed as being more concerned with the aesthetics of life than anything else. She is constantly fussing with her daughter’s hair to cover the eye patch and she says at one point, "If you want to make friends, they can’t see your eye patch.". Although the young girl does not seem affected by her mother’s actions as she is too young to fully understand, the audience immediately think that the mother have a part in future scenes, and that she may be responsible for her daughters future problems. This is reinforced by the young girl scraping her hair back at school and then making it cover her eye patch again when the boy makes the pirate comment, thinking she may make friends like that. In the opening credits, there are CGI images of falling body parts of dolls, which immediately connotes to the reader that dolls are involved, and again is reinforced when the mother gives a doll as a present to the little girl. The mother says ‘If you cant get a real friend, make one.’

The narrative of the film is of a linear style as it shows three scenes of the girl growing up, however the first shot of the girl screaming in pain appears unrelated to any of the other scenes. Therefore the audience could assume that this could be a flash forward of what is yet to come. The audience is positioned in an observational view, but yet still able to make assumptions of what is yet to come. Immediately we can see that the girl is isolated, due to the conversation in the playground and the camera techniques used, which could be the identification of her psychological problems. The major themes in the narrative of the opening sequence is to just generally give the audience some background information, such as the girl will lead an isolated life due to her eye patch and this could be the start of her problems as at the end of the opening sequence she says ‘What do you think of my pirate patch?’ to the doll her mother gave her for her birthday. This has elements of schizophrenia. The tension is not really created in the opening, as it is just a simple linear narrative but the story within it is quite interesting.

The social groups represented in this text are limited, as it only features a family with one child. They are represented as quite a normal family, however the mother appears too obsessed with appearances and the young girl obviously has to wear the eye-patch, and these details separate them from perhaps a normal stereo-typical American family life. The ideology featured in text is that we should all have friends and if we do not have friends then we are not normal. The mother reinforces this when she says, ‘If you can’t get a real friend, make one.’ And the little girl then follows this advice by talking to the doll. It implies someone should try as hard as they can to get a friend, even if it is in-animate object.

The target audience for this movie, in my opinion is, 16-21 year olds of both sexes. However as the film is rated an 18, it is probably aimed at an older audience. The probable reading of this text is that it’s about an American family, but the young girl has sight problems and so cannot gain friends. AN aberrant could be that that it is a document, as there is nothing that is totally unrealistic or could not happen. I read the text as the probable reading, as it is quite a simple structure and narrative to follow, and I don’t think any readings will be greatly affected by gender, personality or background.