The Bay
The surprise came at the end, when the name of the director showed up. Barry Levinson? The Rain Man, Wag the Dog Barry Levinson? Is making found footage horror flics? Ok… it does explain, however, why this film about a spreding infection in small town Something Or Other Bay is without doubt rising way above the recent explorations into a genre that is, or should be, dead on its feet. Well, it still is, but twitching. “The Bay” is professionally filmed and edited, it looks like a proper movie by somebody who has the skills to handle a camera and move about the actors. The plot is still what you’d expect: odd signs of people getting infected, the search for the cause, the spreading of the disease and then the mayhem. There is the straightforward story line with the tv crew running around trying to get footage, and then there is the other, more original one, with a doctor from Maryland hospital trying to communicate with CDC and Homeland Security in order to make them help him and his town. What I liked most about the film was how these scenes were written. There is a lot of “Yes, that’s correct” and “No, Sir” involved, trying to put a professional blanket over a pile of squirming worms (isopods, in fact, whatever that is, it has legs and teeth). Utterly help- and clueless, but in proper style… Why they decided to end the film they way they did is their secret, I did not find that terribly compelling The overall framing device of the girl reporting telling the story in retrospect was also kind of unnecessary, only brought out her acting deficiencies. I kept waiting for this device to have some function in the end, some effective twist or turn that made it necessary for the poor girl to look into a wobbly skype camera all the time (didn’t I read they have broadband in the US? Maybe in other places…), but none came. Solid and gory in places, a bit worn out in others, no waste of time, no gain of insight into the future of horror either…
thomas4cinema 