Yet another “found footage” film has been released. Fans of the genre may find “The Bay” enjoyable, but it doesn’t present any new additions to the worn out genre. There are a few good moments of terror, but overall it is an epidemic turned creature horror flick with no substance. The biggest surprise is that it is directed by Academy Award winner Barry Levinson (“Rain Man”); being a high selling point and attention grabber. It seems that with a high caliber director there would be a recreation of found footage horror but is nothing more than a low budget gross out movie.
The story takes place in a small town in Maryland where on July 4th, 2009 an ecological disaster occurred where no aid for the town’s victims was available. The story is told over a Skype interview with the news anchor (Kether Donohue); who witnessed the disaster while attempting to cover it. The first ten to twenty minutes is presented in documentary fashion on the poor water conditions due to the dumping of chicken excrement by farms in the bay; which leads to infection and worse.
The movie is very much an “internet” movie in that it is a modern day found footage film complete with computer screen footage, glitches, and footage relying on Skype and FaceTime. The story goes back and forth between the chaos of the city’s dwellers and oceanographers. The latter’s footage is posthumous, they had tried to find out what was happening before their deaths. What begins with a bacterial outbreak with victims acquiring blisters and boils leads to death, then the appearance of a rare insect type thing – everywhere.
The point of potential which is quickly lost is the fact that it has a bit of the feeling “Jaws” gives. Being the lifestyle of living by the bay, the water is the source of entertainment and travel for tons of people – but in this case it is also their demise for unknown reasons, at first. The film also includes Kristen Connolly (“The Cabin in the Woods”) and is the first credited title for the screenwriter Michael Wallach.
“The Bay” is now playing in select theaters and is also available to view on ITunes and VOD.
