An eco body horror found footage/mockumentary with social commentary, horrifying events and gore. 

• Entertainment factor: ★★★★★
• Gore factor: ★★★★★
• Gruesome factor: ★★★★★
• Body horror factor: ★★★★★
• Social commentary factor: ★★★★★
• Eco horror factor: ★★★★★
• How shaky is the camera? Not that shaky

The Bay has an important message to convey that we are part of the ecosystem and when we pollute that system we pollute ourselves with gruesome body horror consequences. It stars Kether Donohue, Will Rigers, Kristen Connoly, Stephen Kunke. Directed by Barry Levinson. Written by Michael Wallach, Barry Levinson. 

Duration 1h 21m

Plot

Donna Thompson is a newbie reporter who is in the town of Claridge Maryland to cover the Fourth of July festivities. When suddenly a woman walks in the street, covered in blisters and a rash and shouting for her husband. This is the start of the events that unfold during that day. Now three years later Donna has collected all kinds of footage and information about what really happened that day and has put it into a documentary. She is now being interviewed with Skype to talk about that day herself. 

Six weeks before this horrifying event, two oceanographers were doing research in Chesapeake Bay, on which Claridge is situated. They discovered that the water was highly toxic and polluted. The chicken farm near the bay dumped their waste near and in the water, which contained all kinds of chemicals, among which fertilizer. The oceanographers discovered a fish who was eaten alive from the inside by small isopod larvae. In fact those larvae started out so small that they infiltrated the water treatment plant. Those oceanographers were found dead, being eaten by what they first thought, a bull shark. 

On the day of the Fourth of July most of the people of Claridge were infected by then. They were eaten up alive from the inside. We follow the chaos and panic that broke out that day, through multiple perspectives. Two police officers Paul and Jimson were on patrol and found a dead man on a lawn. A young girl covered in blisters and a rash is FaceTiming with her friend because her parents left her alone. We get to see footage from different CCTV cameras, like inside the hospital. At the hospital woks Dr. Jack Abrams who is recording the situation with the patients. He also contacts the CDC and there’s footage of their conversations. A woman calls 911 because there’s a woman outside, bleeding and vomiting and she is filming her. 

In the meantime Donna tries to adapt and thinks she now has to cover the story of a murder until the whole town succumbs to these parasites. And lastly we follow Alex and Stephanie Talmet with their baby Andrew who have rented a boat to sail to Claridge to celebrate the fireworks with her parents. They have no idea what is happening by then and they arrive at dusk when the whole town has become a ghost town and 700 people already have died. Some of them are lying in the street. And they are not save either, because while sailing, Alex took a dive into the water. 

The government tried to cover it up, they sealed off the area, took all the cameras and phones. Donna has recovered a lot of different footage, from Jack’s conversations with the CDC, the video diary of the oceanographers, and normal people, to tell the truth of what really took place that day.

Continue reading below this announcement.

Short Review

The film has a very realistic take and vibe. It’s a story that is both a warning as a social commentary about capitalism and the economy and powerful men trying to hold their positions which are seen as more important than the lives of people.

Donna herself is very believable, as in the Skype interview as in her own footage in which she is a very inexperienced reporter who doesn’t know what she is doing. And only realizes much later what she has witnessed and how important that story is. 

By means of all kinds of different footage, from all kinds of people, we get a full view of the panic that slowly arose and quickly went from incidents to a catastrophe. The build up is very well done, and it feels all very realistic. The people feel like real people in a real town where they celebrated the Fourth of July with fun in the water who found themselves in a life threatening situation for which there was no cure and nothing to be done. 

Because of this realism, it feels more horrifying and terrible than scary. Especially the little girl FaceTiming with her friend is very hard to watch. Also the cheerful Alex and Stephanie who find themselves in a nightmare is a smart choice, to let them sail into the dead silence at night after all the chaos and panic has died. 

Although the focus is on a horrifying and gruesome atmosphere full of chaos and panic, there’s also room for a lot of gore and even jump scares. The blisters, the rash, the isopods eating their way out of the bodies, the half eaten faces, is all very gory and graphic and feels rather realistic, turning this eco horror into a gruesome body horror. The jump scares are a big surprise because it’s not a movie you would expect jump scares. They are smartly chosen to give an extra scary vibe to the whole situation. They added music to the footage for more dramatic effects which isn’t disruptive at all, but adds a new dynamic to the mockumentary making it feel more like a real documentary. 

The Bay is not only an entertaining found footage/mockumentary with a horrifying atmosphere, gore and dread and jump scares, it also has an important message, about pollution and the ecosystem and that we are effected by it as well. Add to that the cover up situation and the idea that the economy is more important than human lives and this is an eco horror with social commentary that has great impact.