The Bay
The Bay
R | 02 November 2012 (USA)
The Bay Trailers

Two million fish washed ashore. One thousand blackbirds dropped from the sky. On July 4, 2009 a deadly menace swept through the quaint seaside town of Claridge, Maryland, but the harrowing story of what happened that Independence Day has never been told—until now. The authorities believed they had buried the truth about the tragedy that claimed over 700 human lives. Now, three years later, a reporter has emerged with footage revealing the cover-up and an unimaginable killer: a mysterious parasitic outbreak. Told from the perspective of those who were there and saw what happened, The Bay unfolds over 24 hours through people's iPhones, Androids, 911 calls, webcams, and whatever else could be used to document the nightmare in Claridge. What follows is a nerve-shredding tale of a small town plunged into absolute terror.

Reviews
Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Leisher As scientifically accurate as The Flintstones. But at least the acting wasn't very good! Seriously though, the people behind this terrible "found footage" film did absolutely zero research into anything. No government entity or service provider in the film performs as they normally would in such circumstances. The "cause" of the outbreak is, literally, just a jumbled mish mash of hot button eco issues. It is the film equivalent of someone running down a deserted street yelling "synergy" and truly thinking that's a good marketing campaign for jeans. The only "reality" to be found here is that small town mayors can be dumb and microscopic organisms can indeed kill us. Outside of that, they might as well have had Scooby and the Mystery Machine as the central figure in the movie.There is nothing plausible or intelligent about this movie.
bparvin This movie had a decent plot and delivered a story with some very minor plot twists. It had a very straight path with no little guessing on what would happen next. Decent movie if you like the "documentary" style film. Worth the watch but don't expect a movie you will suggest to your friends.
Guillermo Bosque Summary: I really liked The Bay, because it looked realistic and its plot is thought-provoking. 61/100 (C+)Directed by the academy award winner Barry Levinson and produced by Jason Blum, "The Bay" is an above-average, found-footage horror film. First, let me say that the trailer is great, the premise is terrific and Barry Levinson is a very talented director. The entire film feels quite genuine, the found-footage adds lots of veracity and the acting is quite good. I really liked the performance of the news reporter. Moving on, even though its running time is very short (84 min), it didn't deliver enough scares or entertainment to me. Everything was kind of boring, but I give it credit because it looked extremely real the whole time.I'm pretty sure that a huge part of the audience that disliked The Bay did not even try to understand the message of the movie. This ecological issue could actually happen in real life! It was so thought-provoking. Moving on, as I said the performances were great, just some extras were kinda weak. Kether Donohue's performance was excellent, she's a news reporter in the film and is documenting all the catastrophe in this little town; her character was dynamic and smart. In addition, she's not the only one important here, throughout the film we can see some scientists talking through Skype about this parasite and all these scenes were quite effective and interesting.Do not expect jump-scares or lots of gore. This movie is more about scientists, laboratories, death fishes, people infected in hospitals and stuff like that. The Bay boasts a thought-provoking story about public services, in this case water contaminated, eww. Levinson cares about the human perspective and he gives us some nice camera shots in hospitals and streets. He smartly uses a found-footage style to present us his intriguing tale. Although at times he forgot how to maintain the film entertaining, I was satisfied by the end of it. I remember that I kept looking at a glass of water for minutes thinking... where does it come from? How clean is it?It was very thrilling sometimes and it had two or three effective jump- scares, but two of them are in the trailer. A huge part of the scares and surprises were spoiled by the trailer, so please don't see it. Overall, it's one of the most believable found-footage films I've seen, even though it was not as entertaining as I thought. I only recommend it if you like documentaries or movies about ecological issues, pandemics or virus. The Bay is a horror film for a very specific audience, this is not that type of horror movie which you watch with some friends at night. I recommend you to see it alone, and judge it by yourself. (C+)
Saiph90 The Blair Witch Project cursed us with found footage and the whole raft of truly awful films. So when I discovered it was a found footage film my heart sank and the TV presented saying "there is something in the water that does not want to stay in the water" my heart further sank I thought we would have Godzilla on found footage. This is more of a horror documentary which does not overdose on gore, I watched the awful Into the Storm which made the mistake of having a really flimsy sub plot which did not work, The Bay has no real sub plot but has a claustrophobic terror and a few jolts such as when the creature jumps from the fish's mouth, the blood dropping down onto the reporter and the woman in the back of the police car. This is an excellent concept and although classed as found footage does not go overboard with jerky camera work.