Review by Toby Lattimore

The Bay (18)

Set in the small Maryland town, Chesapeake Bay during the 2009 Independence Day celebrations The Bay shows us through ‘found footage’ the fictional sequence of events that chronicle the outbreak of a deadly flesh eating species. These creatures have been poisoned by a range of terrible toxins that has caused their mutation and we are taken on a gruesome journey into peoples’ suffering.

An effective and believable Kether Donohue heads up the story as the traumatised young reporter who survives the encounter when most are left melting in the roads and corridors. There is plenty of blood on show here and although little money has been spent on the actual filming and cast, the found footage being rushed and appropriately low quality, a large amount of what budget they had has been dished out on special effects, dead bodies and all kinds of grizzly accessories.

We learn about the outbreak through a range of characters. Christopher Denham plays a research scientist who documents the developments and Frank Deal plays the corrupt Mayor. Both seem real and yet their action distant, a clip from someone’s life, the style of the filming voyeuristic rather than prescribed.

A range of media is used to portray the story on screen. Social media tweets and texts are shown, audio recordings and radio reports are also used to good effect within the makeup of the footage. This gives it more of an up-to-date feel and works effectively.

The Bay is directed by the very experienced Barry Levinson and the film has some obviously dated jumps but is a fun attempt at producing a Horror on a low budget. The main problem is that we do not really feel close to any of the sufferers, our emotional investment being reduced to a minimum, and therefore we’re not really too bothered if anybody survives in the end.

51/100

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