Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Fantastic!

An Exercise In Nonsense

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Critics were positive, audiences not so much. Frustratingly, I sit precariously in the middle whilst tentatively teetering to either side. A seaside town is enjoying the festivities of Independence Day, where toxicity levels of the nearby water are staggeringly increasing. This results in a deadly plague being unleashed where humans become hosts to a flesh eating parasitical isopod. Think of this as a found footage horror film in the style of a faux documentary which conveys one important message: water pollution is bad. Its documentarian aesthetic appeal is what creates the realism and genuine scares, it's incredibly lifelike. The atmospheric nature and intelligent execution will appeal to older audiences, however for those genre enthusiasts looking for plenty of chills...look elsewhere. A disinterested cast, a wave of generic sound effects and a plethora of cheesy acting results in what I can only describe as mediocre. The message is there! Levinson's direction was perfectly suited to this genre albeit a weird shift from his usual films. The narrative was consistently fresh as it switches between news reporters, members of the public, oceanographers and the CDCP. Such a shame that basic acting and a overly preachy story prevents this from being good. Kether Donohue looks like she should be in the 70s with the attire she was wearing (tightest trousers ever...). Surprisingly a big issue I had was with the picture quality of some of the found footage. Watching it on a 4K television enhances the blur and pixelation to a point where it's difficult to see what is actually happening. Never had that happen before with a bluray transfer. Also everyone who gets infected seems to immediately mutter "kill me now, just end it!". That's all well and good if we had emotionally involving characters, but we don't...so I feel nothing. Is this the worst found footage flick? No. Could it be better? Ummm definitely.

As scientifically accurate as The Flintstones. But at least the acting wasn't very good! Seriously though, the people behind this terrible "found footage" film did absolutely zero research into anything. No government entity or service provider in the film performs as they normally would in such circumstances. The "cause" of the outbreak is, literally, just a jumbled mish mash of hot button eco issues. It is the film equivalent of someone running down a deserted street yelling "synergy" and truly thinking that's a good marketing campaign for jeans. The only "reality" to be found here is that small town mayors can be dumb and microscopic organisms can indeed kill us. Outside of that, they might as well have had Scooby and the Mystery Machine as the central figure in the movie.There is nothing plausible or intelligent about this movie.

More of a slow burning science (part fiction) thriller. I rated this a 5 but by no means is this a rubbish movie. The found footage is enticing rather than annoying, and there are some scenes which might make you jump or squirm - i definitely was itching! I think the good thing is that the female lead was pretty strong and the acting wasn't bad at all!! Quite believable all the way through The thing about this film is that its quite disturbing in parts. There's also a good pace and the film doesn't stay in one place but keeps moving. What resinates with me is that that is how governments will act, all the secrecy, the cover ups, that is realistic. So the movie does keep you watching. Its not long anyway for the viewer that might get bored. just don't expect big budget and don't expect horror scares.

Summary: I really liked The Bay, because it looked realistic and its plot is thought-provoking. 61/100 (C+)Directed by the academy award winner Barry Levinson and produced by Jason Blum, "The Bay" is an above-average, found-footage horror film. First, let me say that the trailer is great, the premise is terrific and Barry Levinson is a very talented director. The entire film feels quite genuine, the found-footage adds lots of veracity and the acting is quite good. I really liked the performance of the news reporter. Moving on, even though its running time is very short (84 min), it didn't deliver enough scares or entertainment to me. Everything was kind of boring, but I give it credit because it looked extremely real the whole time.I'm pretty sure that a huge part of the audience that disliked The Bay did not even try to understand the message of the movie. This ecological issue could actually happen in real life! It was so thought-provoking. Moving on, as I said the performances were great, just some extras were kinda weak. Kether Donohue's performance was excellent, she's a news reporter in the film and is documenting all the catastrophe in this little town; her character was dynamic and smart. In addition, she's not the only one important here, throughout the film we can see some scientists talking through Skype about this parasite and all these scenes were quite effective and interesting.Do not expect jump-scares or lots of gore. This movie is more about scientists, laboratories, death fishes, people infected in hospitals and stuff like that. The Bay boasts a thought-provoking story about public services, in this case water contaminated, eww. Levinson cares about the human perspective and he gives us some nice camera shots in hospitals and streets. He smartly uses a found-footage style to present us his intriguing tale. Although at times he forgot how to maintain the film entertaining, I was satisfied by the end of it. I remember that I kept looking at a glass of water for minutes thinking... where does it come from? How clean is it?It was very thrilling sometimes and it had two or three effective jump- scares, but two of them are in the trailer. A huge part of the scares and surprises were spoiled by the trailer, so please don't see it. Overall, it's one of the most believable found-footage films I've seen, even though it was not as entertaining as I thought. I only recommend it if you like documentaries or movies about ecological issues, pandemics or virus. The Bay is a horror film for a very specific audience, this is not that type of horror movie which you watch with some friends at night. I recommend you to see it alone, and judge it by yourself. (C+)