Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Leisher As scientifically accurate as The Flintstones. But at least the acting wasn't very good! Seriously though, the people behind this terrible "found footage" film did absolutely zero research into anything. No government entity or service provider in the film performs as they normally would in such circumstances. The "cause" of the outbreak is, literally, just a jumbled mish mash of hot button eco issues. It is the film equivalent of someone running down a deserted street yelling "synergy" and truly thinking that's a good marketing campaign for jeans. The only "reality" to be found here is that small town mayors can be dumb and microscopic organisms can indeed kill us. Outside of that, they might as well have had Scooby and the Mystery Machine as the central figure in the movie.There is nothing plausible or intelligent about this movie.

ericrnolan "The Bay" (2012) deserves credit for its effort to give viewers a detailed and well developed, found-footage science fiction-horror movie. In depicting a brutal parasitic infection eradicating a small coastal town, writers Barry Levinson and Michael Wallach appear familiar with the basics of epidemiology and public health. And they make nice use of a time-honored sci-fi standby — pollutants causing small organisms to mutate into large ones.Levinson and Wallach are ambitious too. "The Bay" follows a number of intertwining narratives winding through the entire town, making use of more than a dozen actors and innumerable extras. Some of those actors are quite good — especially those portraying emergency professionals, like the local emergency room doctor, the staff for the Centers for Disease Control and the bureaucrat from the Department of Homeland Security. I think a story with this scope, and with this many characters, would have made a fine ecological techno-thriller novel. The filmmakers really do serve up a thoughtful, serious cautionary tale that is sometimes frightening.Despite its strengths, however, "The Bay" is still encumbered by some noticeable flaws. There's little structure to it, the pacing feels off, and we follow so many characters that it is hard for the viewer to get to know any one of them. There is a news reporter whose point of view serves as a framing device, but she's performed with little energy by the main actress, and her character isn't scripted to be terribly likable to begin with. Parts of the film feel redundant, too. Levinson (who is also the director here) keeps replaying footage and key dialogue, and it's a poor choice.All things considered, I'd rate "The Bay" a 7 out of 10.https://ericrobertnolan.wordpress.com/

Michael O'Keefe It takes Director Barry Levinson to hit a high mark with a "found footage" horror movie. Sure some shaky camera and a few plot holes concerning different opinions; but THE BAY is a keeper. A news reporter narrates and gives context to webcam, newsreel, security cam and digital cam footage to convey a documentary feel and atmosphere.A small Maryland town on the Chesapeake Bay has its July 4th celebration interrupted by an ecological situation that has ugly large parasites, invading the bodies of fish and humans. The community is contaminated by the "poop" of steroid enhanced chickens. These bugs eat their new found hosts from the inside out. Down right gruesome! Not a creature feature actually. Not a vampire or zombie flick; but a terror by disease movie. Even with gross and very disturbing images; you'll want to watch again with a couple of friends.The cast includes: Christopher Denham, Nansi Aluka, Stephen Kunken, Kristen Connolly, Frank Deal, Kether Donohue and Dave Hager.

begob A covered-up-breaking-news-found-footage story.Capitalist investment pollutes the most beautiful estuary in America, and small town folk take the deadly hit via an organ devouring parasite.This is enjoyable, but insanely hectic. A multitude of visual/audio formats, POVs, unrelated characters + creature-feature bordering on zombie apocalypse with government conspiracy thrown in. Phew! We start with a wikileaks-type reporter exposing the cover up, while admitting her pants were too tight in the footage. Nice touch. Her footage gives a sweet view of small town America on the 4th of July as she interviews local yokels, including Ms Crustacean as the emblem of this crab fishing community. But ... the yokels start acting oddly, flash backs show a mounting concern amongst marine biologists, the authorities get steadily overwhelmed, and chaos ensues.I liked the way this was held together by the narrator (voice a bit bland), and the editing was very good. It doesn't really build to a pitch, and I guess they were casting around for specific jump scares toward the end. Cue a zombie from the back seat. There was a nice effect from voices crying out, but the director didn't dial it up.Overall there's a dilemma between atmospheric scares and choppy-choppy media techniques, and this film didn't solve it.But is it the future of horror? It had the reportage feel of World War Z (the novel - the film is very different), with a tighter story. Would be interesting to see something like this come out of Asia, where our environmental nightmares have been outsourced to eternal damnation.