THE BAY (2012) movie review

Bay, The (2012) d. Levinson, Barry (USA)

The populace of a small Chesapeake Bay town falls victim to a flesh eating virus gone supernova (as in the little parasites have grown anywhere from cockroaches to the size of a small dog) thanks to a combination of mindless waste disposal and a dose of radioactivity. However, Oscar-winning director Levinson’s decision to frame his ecological horror effort (co-written with Michael Wallach) within the found footage milieu is one that proves problematic once viewers’ logic circuits start humming, which is early and often.

Cub reporter Kristen Connolly, one of the tragic event’s remaining survivors, serves as our primary narrator whose footage she hopes will shed some much-needed light on the cover-up (which purportedly took place in 2009). A fair premise, but then Levinson breezily introduces clips from hospital security cameras, police squad cars, traffic signals, CDC Skype conversations... For a governmental hush-hush job, there seems to be a lot of leeway granted to our intrepid lid-blowing documentarians.

Though it fails to fully deliver the intended emotional wallop, there are several solid boo-sequences, some nasty gruesome biological meltdowns and you’ll probably hesitate for the second or two before drinking that next glass of tap water. Ultimately, however, the real-life horrors of human negligence and governmental shadiness outweigh anything shown onscreen here.