The Bay (film)
The Bay | |
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Baltimore Pictures Haunted Movies Alliance Films IM Global Hydraulx Entertainment Automatik Entertainment | |
Distributed by | Lionsgate Roadside Attractions |
Release dates |
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Running time | 85 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2 million[1] |
Box office | $1.6 million[2] |
The Bay is a 2012 American mockumentary horror film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Michael Wallach, based on an original story created by the duo. It stars Kether Donohue, Nansi Aluka, Christopher Denham, Frank Deal, and Kristen Connolly and premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released in theaters on November 2, 2012.[3][4] To date, it is Levinson's only horror film.
Plot
The opening text explains the footage shown in the film was confiscated by the U.S. government until an anonymous source leaked it for the entire world to see.
Claridge, a town located on
Months beforehand, two oceanographers discovered high toxicity levels in the bay. After encountering multiple eviscerated fish eaten from the inside out, they realized that the true culprit was massive, mutated tongue-eating lice. The isopods have evolved to affect humans due to the high volume of chicken excrement dumped into the bay, the chickens having been fed steroids to promote rapid growth. Because of this, the isopods proliferate tremendously, killing off millions of fish and causing 40% of the bay to become lifeless. The lesions result from the isopods eating their hosts from the inside out. The oceanographers attempted to alert city authorities, but the mayor, John Stockman, ignored the warnings. A swarm of fully-grown isopods eventually killed the oceanographers, and their bodies were discovered shortly before the film's events.
The Talmet family sail to Claridge, unaware of the danger as the town has been forcibly
The CDC eventually learns that the water in Claridge likely has a considerable
Donna and her cameraman, Jim Hoyt, continue to document the carnage despite her station's blog being shut down by the FBI. Donna, in narration, reveals that after fleeing Claridge, she never reported anything else and that Jim later died. The Talmets arrive to find the town mostly deserted, with corpses littering the street. Horrified, they manage to contact a friend Bill on Skype to ask for help. However, Alex, who swam in the bay earlier, realizes he has lesions on his neck when Bill points them out. He quickly dies from isopods crawling out of his neck, while Stephanie is able to escape unharmed with their infant son Andrew. They are frightened by a still-living woman hiding in a police car who begs for help before Stephanie hits her, accidentally snapping her neck.
Years later, Donna leaks the gathered footage, revealing that the government managed to kill the isopods by filling the water with chlorine; they then covered up the incident as the result of "unusually high water temperatures" and paid off the few survivors (including Donna) in exchange for silence. She then reveals that Stephanie is still living but refused to participate in the film. The movie ends with shots of civilians innocently enjoying the water of the bay, unaware of the dangers, as 40% of the bay remains lifeless.
Cast
- Kether Donohue as Donna Thompson
- Kristen Connolly as Stephanie
- Will Rogers as Alex
- Stephen Kunken as Dr. Jack Abrams
- Robert Treveiler as Dr. Williams
- Nansi Aluka as Jaqueline
- Christopher Denham as Sam
- Frank Deal as Mayor John Stockman
- Michael Beasley as Deputy Jimson
- Jody Thompson as Deputy Paul
- Andrew Stahl as Sheriff Lee Roberts
- Jane McNeill as Victim #1
Production
The film came about as a result of a documentary Levinson was asked to produce about problems facing the
According to script writer Michael Wallach, the script originally started out as a short story about a young couple who comes across a dead town. After having pieced together what happened from footage scattered across town, they realize the town had not fully died yet.[7] Levinson was happy with the script, and sent Wallach the movie JFK: 3 Shots That Changed America and asked if the movie could be made into a documentary.[7]
Levinson chose to use the
Though the film is set in Levinson's home state of Maryland, it was shot on locations in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Reception
The film has received mostly positive reviews from critics, with a 76% approval rating and an average rating of 6.6 out of 10 on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 82 reviews.[8] The website's critical consensus states that "Barry Levinson's eco-horror flick cleverly utilizes familiar found-footage methods in service of a gruesome yet atmospheric chiller." It also holds a score of 65 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 20 reviewers.[9] David Cox of The Guardian awarded the film five out of five, and called it a "horror film for grown ups".[10] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, however, was less positive, awarding the film two-and-a-half out of a possible four, stating "Although there are some scary moments here, and a lot of gruesome ones, this isn't a horror film so much as a faux eco-documentary".[11]
References
- ^ "The Bay After: A Chat With Barry Levinson". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on April 27, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
- ^ "The Bay (2012)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
- ^ Wong, Tom (September 13, 2012). "TIFF 2012: Barry Levinson's The Bay at Midnight Madness Diaries". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on November 6, 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
- ^ "The Bay Trailer, News, Videos, and Reviews". ComingSoon.net. Archived from the original on November 6, 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
- ^ a b c d Watercutter, Angela. "The Bay Spikes Cellphone Footage With Environmental Horror". Wired. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
- ^ a b Crow, Jonathan. "Barry Levinson on his environmental horror movie 'The Bay' – 80 percent of this is true". Yahoo!. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
- ^ a b "Exclusive Interview with the Bay Screenwriter Mike Wallach". 23 October 2012. Archived from the original on 15 August 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
- ^ "The Bay (2012)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
- CBS Interactive. Archivedfrom the original on October 6, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
- ^ Cox, David (February 28, 2013). "The Bay – review". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 28, 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (November 7, 2012). "The Bay Movie Review & Film Summary (2012)". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on July 8, 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
External links
- The Bay at IMDb
- The Bay at Rotten Tomatoes