The Bay

Director - Barry Levinson (Black Mass)
Starring - Nansi Aluka (The Shield), Christopher Denham (Argo, Camp Hell), and Stephen Kunken (Price Check)
Release Date - 2012
Genre - Horror/Sci-Fi
Tagline - "Panic feeds on fear"
Format - Streaming (Netflix)

Rating (out of 5):

     Sometimes I see a movie while I'm out and about and it intrigues me but for some reason I will pass it up and grab something else. The artwork looks awesome and the back of the film really does paint a great film experience but for some reason I will skip these films up for something that will probably suck.  Anyway, several months ago I was at Wal-Mart when my wife pointed out the biological horror found footage flick The Bay.  The film looked like a good time but I skipped it then and a few days later I did the same at FYE.   Recently, I was watching movies on Netflix and decided to turn it into a horror movie night.  When I shuffled through the flicks I found The Bay and decided it was time to give it a go.  After watching it I had to write a review to convince those that have yet to see this flick to give it a chance.

     The film follows a former news reporter who is creating a documentary.  The reporter is one of the survivors of a small coastal town where many of the locals died when a mutant form of sea lice, or isopod, contaminates the water in the bay.   The cause of the sea lice mutation is due to the run off from a chicken processing plant.  As the locals celebrate the 4th of July the mutant parasite inhabit the locals causing boils and lesions to appear within minutes.  Over time the parasite bursts out of the host body killing them.  After a majority of the town dies from the parasite the government intervenes and covers it up before the epidemic goes global.
     If you read my recent review for The Dinosaur Project (read the review here) you know that I fucking hate shaky camerawork and MOST found footage films.  I have poor eyesight and the shaky camerawork that is common in most found footage films gives me a horrible headache.  I also hate when the "found footage" is extremely poor quality.  Sure, The Blair Witch Project was able to pull this look and feel off because it was one of the first to use this style but I feel that was a one time appeal to fans.  Now it is just played out and gives the viewer a horrible experience.  That is one of the biggest disappointments I had with this film.  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this flick but sometimes I wanna see something with some production value.  Some stories would benefit from using the found footage angle but I believe this movie would have been even better if it was not.  The acting is not something that can be easily judged due to the way this film is set up.  The film is honestly just a series of clips filmed on cellphones, Facetime with iPhone, news cameras, and so forth and most are people acting sporadic.  What time we do get people slowing down and actually interacting with other characters they actually do a great job.  The story is nothing new and it feels like I have seen this one numerous times on the Sy-Fy channel.  The film is basically some new mutation of something infecting people and killing them.  I can name hundreds of films like this but I wont.  Finally, those looking for great special effects and bloody deaths will find them here.  The special effects in this one looks great and I was actually impressed by this one actually having practical effects instead of shitty CGI.  The film does actually have CGI but it is limited to the parasite only.  Overall, The Bay is a shockingly great found footage flick that entertains but still suffers from the typical problems of the sub-genre.  I highly recommend this one.