The Bay

Directed by Barry Levinson (Good Morning Vietnam, Sphere), the Bay is a ecological horror movie that uses the premise of "lost footage" but with a twist of social commentary on how mankind is ruining the planet. Set in the town of Maryland, this movie combines the horrors of this town from a variety of different perspectives, some quite unsettling. Unfortunately on the 4th of July celebrations for Maryland, the townspeople began to get extremely sick that soon spread to almost all corners of this town.

The protagonist of the film is reporter Donna Thompson (Kether Donohue), one of the survivors of this ecological disaster who through carefully scripted interviews and "lost" footage, tries to create a chronological account of what happened to Maryland. While it is a clever spin on the traditional horror film, the entire genre of "lost footage" has unfortunately been done to death and it doesn't help with the amount of plot holes located in The Bay.

Fortunately the cast of The Bay help carry a rather generic story with some impressive performances, especially the realistic footage incorporated into the film. What I did like about The Bay was the tension that Levinson created, making certain scenes quite compelling yet quite unnerving at the same time. Nonetheless if you want a horror away from those clichéd slasher films than The Bay attempts to be the thinking man's horror which it almost succeeds.