Witness the shocking footage taken from all points of view of a small town that is overcome by an ecological disaster involving mutated isopods.  (Don’t Google that if you want to avoid creepy images that will haunt your dreams.)

Judging a Book by its Cover

From the guys that brought you scary ghost movies comes a scary bug movie?  Are the bugs ghosts?

-Yeah I’m creeped out by that …thing in the mouth.  I’ve seen them in pictures before and they’re very disgusting parasites.  What a wonderful movie this might turn out to be.

-Do crustaceans not x-ray?

Panic feeds on fear!

Directed by Barry Levinson

Starring Will Rogers, Kristen Connolly and Kether Donohue

Basing itself on actual events and blowing them out of proportion just enough to be believable for the film, everything starts with a couple of marine researchers who are discover the dangerous toxicity of the water near a small town on the Chesapeake Bay.  Thanks to chicken farms dumping the excrement into the bay, the local water features dead zones where nothing can live yet the mayor refuses to act on the information, even guzzling a glass in defiance.  Even worse though, the fish that are caught from the waters have parasites eating away at them from the inside.  Parasites that can get through the town’s filtration system and can just as easily affect humans.  Spoiler: they do!

I need some acne cream, stat!

The film is presented as cobbled together footage that was leaked online after it was confiscated by the government immediately following the incredible outbreak that took over a small town almost overnight.  The majority of the footage is narrated by a news reporter whose camera was there to witness much of the disaster.  In addition to offering insight on the poor victims prior to their horrible deaths she relates her personal experiences before and during the outbreak.

Noooope.

It’s not just one voice given to the footage however, there are other stories to be told including a young married couple on a boat with their baby girl, unaware of what’s happening back home.  There is also a doctor’s video diary which is important as he is central to the outbreak along with his dealings with the CDC who are perplexed as to what is making people sick and dying at an alarming rate.

When you see where that comes out of, you may throw up a little.

If the “found footage” genre is not your bag, I doubt very much you’d have much interest in The Bay.  If you’re willing to give it a chance however, you may be surprised to find a film that builds up a decent amount of tension, give you the creeps when the disgusting crawlies makes their appearance and surprise you with the level of carnage that these things can incur by the time the credits roll.

TL;DR

Story: 8 – Leaked footage shows how a parasite, mutated from toxic levels of chicken poo in the water, infects a local town and decimates the population in a hurry.

Blood: 7 – Yeah, I’m not kidding.  The isopods leave some very ugly cadavers in their hungry wake as they burrow and eat through their temporary human hosts.  They almost remind me of what happens if you eat Slugs.

Nudity: 0 – I guess those parts got edited out.

Overall: 7 – I was a bit wary starting off but The Bay eventually creeped me out and won me over by the end.

Trivia

-The parasitic crustacean depicted in the film is Cymothoa exigua or more lovingly known as the tongue-eating louse. The female parasite enters the fish’s mouth and then attaches to their tongue where it extracts the blood causing the tongue to atrophy. The parasite then replaces the fish’s tongue and feeds on the host’s blood or mucus. That explains why many townspeople are found with their tongues extracted.