Review of The Bay (2012) by Michelle W — 05 Jul 2013

The Bay (2012).

Ok, first and foremost, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT watch this movie while you are eating. Not popcorn, not dinner, not candy. Maybe water. I do not consider myself a particularly squeamish person (sure, I plug my ears when the scary parts come- it's the music that can get you, obviously- but I never close my eyes!) but this movie is...gross. Truly, truly, horrifyingly, stomach-churningly, gross. HOWEVER it is not just gross for the sake of being gross, which I appreciated. We're not talking about a generic monster/bug/disease movie that just wants to show off its special effects budget, or anything of the torture porn variety designed to see how much it can titillate the viewers.

But seriously gross, right?

The film follows a young, naive, field reporter on a Summer's day in 2009 as she and her news team track the events that unfold when a run-of-the-mill small-town celebration goes horribly awry. The frame presents the same reporter, older and wiser now, telling her story into a webcam, and we understand that although she survived the tragedy about to unfold, her innocence and belief in the systems that hold society together did not. She's tried to get the footage out and uncover more behind what happened to no avail, so she is turning to the internet to set the record straight.

We flash to her clumsy reporting on the town celebration. At this point we've seen two types of footage- the webcam and the news camera. This introduces us to the format of the film- different types of found footage synthesized to complete our picture of the day. This could have turned into a big mess- different media, different POV and voices, all trying to complete a convoluted puzzle, but the choices of when to use which media are made very carefully and you don't feel like its a gimmick but rather a pretty realistic scenario of how we would actually have to piece together a serious tragedy in the days of cell phone cameras, webcams, 24/7 access to video of pretty much everything that goes on. I almost wish it had played this up a little bit more, as we don't get to know the characters or the backstory very well before the actions starts to really slams us in the face.

We see amateur video footage of two scientists recording their disturbing finds of the levels of pollution and health of the fish in the Chesapeake Bay. We flash back and forth from police footage to video calls between the hospital and the CDC as people start turning up with very strange symptoms. A teenager upset about why her parents haven't come home video chats with a friend on her cell phone for comfort. A waterlogged camera is found at the site where two teenagers disappeared.

As events accelerate and more and more people began dying from their unidentifiable symptoms, a few characters strive to survive and live with the dawning realization that there is literally nothing they can do to help the citizens of the town. The warnings and signs were there, but the government at both local, state, and national levels fail to safeguard these citizens, then try to cover up the disaster. This message is definitely a thread throughout the film for the MOST PART not so heavy-handed as to be distracting. At a couple of points you do scoff (or in Romy's case, yell) at the nonchalant, even stooge-like behavior of some of the government organizations involved.

The main focus is the continually escalating levels of creepiness and horror, and, let's face it, respect for the special effects, makeup, and visual effects crew working on this film! It totally gave me nightmares. In a good way.