Review of The Bay (2012) by Manny C — 05 Mar 2013

You don't expect a low-budget, 'found footage' horror flick to be directed by master satirist Barry Levinson (he of the modern classic Diner (one of my favorite films), and you certainly may not expect such a movie to be a huge dud.

And then you remember Levinson also gave us the ambitious, but flat Toys. The Bay at least has something of an idea at its core: it's a horror film laced with an environmental conscience. It concerns a woman giving an interview via Skype recalling events she was witness to in 2009, when hordes of fish and birds mysteriously died, and then humans.

Turns out ecological malfeasance is poisoning the townsfolks. There's vomiting, there's rashes, even severed tongues and axploding abdomens, all of it the cause of isopods, the product of environmental disaster.

Kudos for the attempt to make a statement through B-movie schlock, but it helps if the thing actually was scary. Levinson clearly can't balance the scares with the message like his best satire films (Good Morning Vietnam, Wag The Dog).

Imagine what a master llike Romero or Craven or Carpenter could have done with material like this.