Directed by Barry Levinson
This is a spooky realistic fiction. Have you seen Mermaids: The Body Found, a Discovery channel special interlacing marine anomalies and theories together to create a documentary/mocumentary about mermaids? Depending on your perspective, the aquatic ape theory they mention may make you feel this is more documentary than fiction.
This film totally has that vibe. Like damn... this could happen...
A small Maryland town, Claridge, has almost all of its inhabitant die brutally on the 4th of July. A government coverup hides the story in exchange for money until Donna Thompson breaks her silence with the encouragement of a site dedicated to exposing situations like this. Somehow the site has consolidated all of the footage of events that day, thus this found footage film begins...
Two oceonographers' bodies are found wrecked in the water weeks before the 4th. Authorities blame it on a shark attack, but they are wrong. When the 4th of July rolls around people begin to get covered with giant blisters and sores. Soon reports of horrifying mutilations roll in and Donna, communications major and TV news reporter intern, follows the story from the beginning. What starts as coverage for the July 4th festivities turns into the story of her life.
The town's resources are spread thin as police go around town with reports of possible murders, and the hospital is overrun by people with the mysterious sores. Infected numbers continue to grow, and Dr. Jack Abrams at the hospital consults the CDC to find the cause and hopefully a cure to all the madness.
Meanwhile the viewer learns that the oceanographers had been studying Chesapeake Bay for some time and found alarming information. The bay has high levels of contaminants that come together to form a chemical x which has enhanced some aquatic isopods to become aggressive killers.
Knowing this is serious the scientists had turned over their tapes to authorities in the hopes of action being taken. Nothing came of it.
Another information source, a blog dude running around in the night in Claridge, is covering the effects of the huge poultry industry on the lake. The chicken poop runoff has contributed to the toxic soup. All the steroids fed to the chicken that are then pooped out that then run into the bay that then mix with a small nuclear leak years earlier are making things deadly.
The oceanographers dissect fish from the bay, recording their findings of what's inside their subjects. The larvae of the isopods is what gets inside the fish. The toxic soup that is the bay accelerated the isopods growth and size. Within half a day the isopods are grown and literally eating their hosts inside out. All those cases of supposed grizzly murders in Claridge are actually victims of the parasites.
Unfortunately none of this information, given to the Chesapeake Environmental Council but maybe never even reviewed, was given to the CDC or Claridge's hospital and they have to fight agaist the clock to find out what's going on before everyone dies.
How did all of this important information get cockblocked from going to the people that should know it anyway? The town's greedy mayor is a major factor. He knew of the toxic chicken poop runoff, he knew about the nuclear leak, and he heard about all the sick and dying people on the 4th, but wouldn't believe it until he got to see people die in front of his own eyes.
And the next big question: how did the whole town get infected if the culprits are isopods in the bay? In order to facilitate the growing poultry business a water desalination plant was setup. That water was given to chickens, used for pools and sprinklers, and then of course there's the people who like to go for a swim. Yes grown isopods cannot fit through the filtration, but the larvae can. Lastly, filtered drinkable water got a rating of a D-. I don't know if in real life that's acceptable water for human consumption, but I know that a D- in school is pretty bad.
Basically the water touched everyone one way or another.
The hospital staff unable to help, flees for their lives, save Dr. Abrams who wants to help by documenting the infection and has become infected himself. He seems to be the only one left alive in the hospital, but he won't be alive for long.
Meanwhile downtown Donna and her cameraman are still rolling and are finding dead bodies everywhere. The only other living people we come across are the dying, and a family who has rode in on a boat to see the fireworks. They're greeted by the parasitic genocide that soon claims the husband's life. The wife takes her baby and tries to flee on foot.
Eventually the town is quarentined and survivors must promise silence for monetary compensation.
Though the CDC would like to quarentine more than just the town and the bay immediatly around Claridge, the small size of the town apparently doesn't warrent such drastic measures.
Donna finishes her tail and if you as a viewer remember some of the found footage newsclips in the film, you recall that tons of fish and birds are just dying. Boom dead. Lots of bodies piling up.
The birds are eating infected fish, flying away in places populated with humans, and we see that different measures really should have been taken. Though the story focuses on Claridge, the film lets you know that the story goes farther.
If you've liked what I've liked in the past reviews, then you'll probably like this one. It's very clear in its story, and its a situational plot rather than a story of personal growth, which I did. Stories driven by action can have character development in them as well, but I feel like often they end of being more exciting than character driven stories. The story has 2 pop up scares, but other than that it builds gradually.
So the way I describe things doesn't really do the visuals justice, unless you have a wicked imagination. As I said, the people are getting eaten inside out. And they show it in the movie. And it's nearly everyone in the town that this is happening to. Basically, you looking for gore? There's gore. You looking for something creepy that can get under your skin? Oh yes, this thing can get under your skin. You looking for tits and beach bodies? No. You won't find that here. There's not really any kind of distraction from the main story, visually or auditorilly. There's only maybe even 2 jokes in the entire movie as well.
Anyway, yes the visuals. Take a look at the image below. If you're more into campy over-the-top death sequences with bloody flying comically into a girl's boobs, this movie is not good for you. If you've been unfortunate enough to see a body or a person who died unnaturally and tragically, then some of the effects and makeup in this movie may seem too real for comfort. If you've studied anatomy and seen cadavers, yes this will probably look more real than most other horror film. Still not convinced and want to be? Here is shot of the oceanographer's body in the movie found in the water, having been soaking for around 35 hours : look at own risk.
It's an incredibly well put together found footage film as well. It's got a variety of compressions and video qualities depending on who the footage is from and what happened to the camera.
Did you see Dreamcatcher and think it was meah ok, and want to see something like it but more believable. The Bay is it. Not the greatest movie in the world, but a good sturdy one time watch.
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