The Bay (2012)

Chaos breaks out in a small Maryland town after an ecological disaster occurs.

Director:

Barry Levinson

Writers:

Michael Wallach (screenplay by), Barry Levinson (story by)

Stars:

Will Rogers, Kristen Connolly, Kether Donohue

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nansi Aluka	...	Jaquline
Christopher Denham	...	Sam
Stephen Kunken	...	Dr. Abrams
Frank Deal	...	Mayor Stockman
Kether Donohue	...	Donna
Kristen Connolly	...	Stephanie
Will Rogers	...	Alex
Kimberly Campbell	...	Nurse Rebecca
Beckett Clayton-Luce	...	Charles
Dave Hager	...	Fisher Jerry
Tara Polhemus	...	Teenage Girl
Sean Johnson	...	Teenage Boy
Murat Erdan	...	Mike Radio Host (as Murat 'Murf Dawg' Erdan)
Lamya Jezek	...	Ms. Rosenblatt (as Lamya Reynolds)
Lucia Scarano	...	Marla Spadafora (as Lucia Forte)

Storyline

This "found-footage" film is set in 2009 in the town of Claridge, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay. During the town's annual 4th of July Crab Festival, townspeople become sick, exhibiting a variety of symptoms, which leads local news reporters to suspect something has infected the water there. No one is sure what it is or how it's transmitted, but as people start to behave strangely, and others turning up dead, fear spawns into panic. The town is shut down as government authorities confiscate video footage from every media or personal source they find, in an effort to cover-up the incident. But one local reporter who witnessed the epidemic, was able to document, assemble, and hide this film in hopes that one day, the horrible truth would be revealed . . .

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Plot Keywords:

ecological disaster | water | bay | found footage | environmental contamination | 

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Taglines:

Panic feeds on fear.

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for disturbing violent content, bloody images and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Barry Levinson was approached to do a documentary about the Chesapeake bay. He watched another documentey about the Chesapeake bay that talked about the pollution and the lack of fish. He said it was a great documentary but nobody will care about it. And so he said he would take all of the facts about the Chesapeake bay and turn it into a theatrical base piece.

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Goofs

The events take place in 2009. One of the characters shows her symptoms via FaceTime which did not debut until 2010.

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Quotes

[last lines]
Officer Paul: Jim it's me... it's
[is cut off by gun-shots]

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Connections

Referenced in Reel (2015)

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Soundtracks

Grover's Corner from 'Our Town'
Written by Aaron Copland
Performed by Aaron Copland and The Philharmonic Orchestra

User Reviews

Creepy and creepier for being plausible

I liked it. Most horror movies depend on something supernatural and implausible to get their chills, but this one makes only modest science-fiction leaps from real ecological problems facing Chesapeake Bay to something truly creepy. Sure, its innocents-at-risk central subplot is hokey, but what do you expect from a horror movie? (We all need someone to identify with.) I think its use of the found-footage technique, by which it pretends to be a documentary, increases both its plausibility and its scariness. I can't judge how well or how fairly it publicizes the ecological problems facing Chesapeake Bay, but it makes for a zinger of a horror movie.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 November 2012 (Belgium)

Also Known As:

The Bay

Filming Locations:

Georgetown, South Carolina, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$19,747, 4 November 2012

Gross USA:

$30,668

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,581,252

Company Credits

Production Co:

Automatik Entertainment, Haunted Movies, Hydraulx

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Datasat Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1