The Bay Review

• 27th Feb 2013

Among Barry Levinson’s more famous directorial outputs are The Rainman, Sleepers and The Young Sherlock Holmes. To then hear that he has directed a horror about a plague-like threat overtaking a small town in Maryland is more than a little odd. Of course, minutes into the film, it is pretty obvious that the film isn’t really a horror – more a damning pseudo-documentary critiquing the destruction of the natural world and the terrible effects wrought by big business and a callous society.

So, The Bay isn’t a horror film in the normal sense of the word. It doesn’t fit into the found-footage genre it closely apes to any real extent. There is nothing in the way of story, plot or character depiction. Instead, what we have is a noob video journalist screening the strange events of her first broadcast and her Skype description of the events and the escalating panic.  What should have been a jolly July 4^th family carnival soon descends into crazed and diseased people screaming for help, the recording of which was apparently suppressed by ‘the authorities’. This is mixed in with other sections of footage from the town’s inhabitants and a couple of biologists researching the destruction of the bay’s flora and fauna, which have been recovered from the scene.

The spread of panic and the way Levinson brings in more of the infected across the town works quite well, especially as we watch a young family and their baby approach the town and dread the consequences. Though on the whole characters are all basically a bunch of faces without much else going on, it is just about forgivable in such a set-up. The beasties responsible for the sickness itself are pretty disgusting.  Familiar to anyone who routinely searches Google images for ‘ugliest creatures’ with which to gross out friends – yes, the creature is actually genuine – not a pretty thought.

What doesn’t work is the absolute lack of subtlety. The facts and horrifying stats that are thrown about by the two scientists, as well as a number of eco-minded players in the found footage we see, are hammered home with the cinematic equivalent of a 200lb lump hammer. Repeated and emphasised beyond what is really needed, they are shocking enough to stand on their own, without such heavy-handed treatment.

The Bay is a strange film; some kind of hybrid thing that threatens true horror without actually going after you with full teeth and claws. Barry Levinson is not shy about discussing why he built this oddity, and it’s pretty clear that creating a cinematic titan or blockbuster isn’t one of them. His obvious disgust with those responsible for the way in which the Chesapeake Bay has been destroyed, a place he obviously has a great amount of sentiment for, is high on his agenda. Corrupt and inept government are also on his shit list, be it the larger federal agencies, responsible for hushing the horrors up, or the small–town official, taking tips from the mayor of Amity Island (and who damn well gets what he deserves). As a piece of eco-propaganda, it is fairly entertaining. As a horror film, it just doesn’t quite have the scares or the story to be successful.

Hannah Satan Turner