My Review Of “The Bay” 2012

Barry Levinson’s “The Bay” is not your typical found footage film. It is more of a documentary discussing the tragic events through compiled footage. Much like the reality shows on TLC or History Channel. The story revolves around a bay harbor town in Maryland nestled in the Chesapeake Bay area and the ecological disaster that unfolds. This movie stars Kristen Connolly, Jane McNeill and Christopher Denham but they are not the sole maestro's of this dark tale. Told through the lenses of multiple television reporter footage, video camera’s ranging from surveillance, camcorder and web cam footage there are a host of doomed characters in this film that play out a horrendous scenario in almost too realistic fashion. The story unfolds with an eerie calm and warning much in the way real life tends to play out in the digital age with attention being demanded to certain social flaws, lack of protection for environment, responsible consumerism or proper understanding of consequences of commercialism. Only this film brings the worlds of doom-n-gloomer’s and human irresponsibility full force into a hellish realization. The story is a cross between environmental disaster and creature feature, yet is 100% nightmare.

“The Bay” manages to string together a very intense and creepy story by pulling you into the film through a witness of the disaster who managed to survive. A lot of people in this poor town did not! You would think the compiling of so many different types of footage from so many different video sources would be choppy or confusing but in this film’s case it runs smoothly and allows you not get wrapped into the story almost becoming unaware that it is a found footage styled movie. I felt like I was watching the real terror unfold after the event. Much like I tend to watch those shows that relive the disaster’s our world lives daily around the globe in order to find warning signs and learn for better preparedness of the future. I was surprised by how invested in this film I became as I sat with my eyes bugged out, holding my breath and cringing at all the gory goodness “The Bay” offers. I loved this movie.