The Bay (2012), a new found-footage genre film from award-winning director Barry Levinson (Diner[1982], Rain Man [1988], Bugsy [1991], Wag the Dog [1997]), is perhaps the first fully epistolaryhorror film.
In horror literary history, we have had some great epistolary novels, such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but this 2012 effort is the first horror film to take full advantage of the Web 2.0 Age by weaving together a coherent narrative from (fictional) news footage, security cameras, cell phones, Skype conference calls, web cams, police videos, etc.
Other found-footage films have moved in this direction but The Bay’s diverse visual tapestry points to the future of the genre. It chronicles an American tragedy across several media channels, private and public, official and unofficial. In this paradigm, citizens are actually “reporters” capturing footage of (horrific) events as they unfold live.
The notion underlying The Bay is that a covert truth-seeking organization called govleaks.com (think: Wikileaks) has organized a treasure-trove of suppressed information regarding a disaster in the small town of Clairidge, Maryland.
There, on July 4, 2009, the 6,200 residents of the town endured an almost unimaginable horror when contaminated water transformed unlucky residents into hosts for tiny, carnivorous parasites from the Chesapeake Bay.
Over seven hundred American citizens died in Clairidge when mutant isopods took root in their guts, and chewed their way out of their bodies, devouring livers, kidneys, and tongues in the process.
As the film commences, a shell-shocked reporter, Donna Thompson (Kether Donohue) conducts a video interview for govleaks.com, one that offers side-by-side commentary with the various forms of footage recorded during the disaster. Donna describes a conspiracy to suppress the truth, a dark nexus of big business, government, and the military.
What The Bay depicts, in unblinking and caustic terms, is an all-too-plausible American nightmare.
As noted above, the film is set on the Fourth of July, which means that signs of Americana are visible everywhere throughout. The stars and stripes of our beloved flag decorate the scenery, and American citizens are seen “just doing the American thing,” eating hot dogs, participating in parades, and waiting to see who will be crowned the new “Miss Crustacean.” Everyone is looking forward to the big fireworks show that night…
These images of innocent Americana are juxtaposed meaningfully with images of terrible death and destruction, and there’s the powerful suggestion on the part of the filmmaker that the American Dream and the American Nightmare may be linked in an inextricable, self-destructive way.
Specifically, the cause of the disaster in The Bay is a new chicken plant (Donald Chicken Farm) erected near water’s edge. Chicken feces laced with growth steroids from artificial feed have been dumped into the Bay without concern or regard for the environment, as we learn from a clandestine video lensed by an animal rights group.
Ironically, the locals themselves, including the mayor are not worried. Instead, they by-and-large want to “develop the hell” out of the bay area for economic success, and worry about “clean-up later.” In other words, personal wealth comes before the sanctity of the environment, and before, in fact, human health and safety.
Alas, the Bay’s water -- which goes through a desalination plant for treatment -- forms the basis of the town’s water supply. That treatment plant has either failed to clean the feces-encrusted water all together, or failed to sweep out the isopod larvae, because of their tiny size.
As the July 4th celebration commences, Clairidge denizens begin breaking out into a nasty red rash, and then their guts begin to hurt…really bad. After that, it’s all pure terror. And no one is spared gruesome suffering and death, not even children. One sweet little girl “video-conferences” a friend on her phone in the final moments, because she is afraid to die alone.
As we also we learn from the various videos and other forms of footage, the mayor had strong evidence that the water wasn’t safe, and that the Bay -- which is 40% a “dead zone -- has suffered an environmental catastrophe. But the mayor didn’t want to stop bringing in those big business dollars, and did nothing to act on the information available. Clairidge derives much of its income from summer dollars, after all…
With irresponsible business and ineffective government oversight coupled as the precipitating causes of the environmental disaster, The Bay also describe how Clairidge’s other institutions fail utterly in a time of crisis.
The police, working with the corrupt mayor, fail to discern the truth of the disease, and seem to believe they are investigating a series of brutal murders.
The local media doesn’t do much better, and is completely shut down by the Federal government, once the CDC and Homeland Security get involved. TV anchors would rather joke and banter than seriously attempt to get to the bottom of the problem.
Ultimately, the decision is made to let the “plague” of parasites burn itself out in chlorine while Clairidge is quarantined. Finally, the government pays off the survivors to assure their continued silence.
This last bit is the ultimate gut punch regarding the film’s through-line. People who have watched their family members die horribly decide not to report the culprits in exchange for personal wealth.
The love of money, we see, pollutes everything else.
The weekend I watched The Bay, ironically, I also received a letter from my own water provider, reporting to me -- weeks after the fact -- that two chemical pollutants had made it into our community’s well-water.
These chemical pollutants, iron and manganese-- we have been assured -- are not “primary” pollutants (meaning that they cause health problems), only “secondary” ones,
meaning that they have discolored and muddied the water, and affected taste. Watch out for black residue in your appliances and water, we are urged.
meaning that they have discolored and muddied the water, and affected taste. Watch out for black residue in your appliances and water, we are urged.
I point out this real life, personal story only to establish how frighteningly plausible The Bay’s terrifying scenario is. Although we have heard again and again from big companies and certain congressmen how “regulations” kill jobs and slow the economy, the alternative is far worse. The alternative is that no one is minding the store when it comes to our food and water, and it is all too easy -- and fast -- for a disaster of catastrophic proportions to occur.
I have often insisted that the horror film is the perfect vehicle in which to explore aspects of our modern life that are not often discussed in mainstream films, and certainly The Bay conforms to this thesis.
It is a terrifying movie (with at least one powerful jump-scare…) about the way we have built a perfect health trap for ourselves by putting “economics” ahead of safety. By utilizing the found-footage sub-genre, and compiling fictional 9-11 calls and video footage, the film speaks meaningfully to our age. We have seen, during disasters like September 11th and Hurricane Katrina, how the media spins its wheels and reports rumors and false stories. This movie reveals the media -- supposedly the watchdogs of our society -- spinning its wheels impotently while people die.
Some prominent critics have suggested (or griped?) that The Bay is more a political film than a horror film. To that assertion, I can only say, that if The Bay -- so plausible and realistic, both in format and content -- doesn’t scare the hell out of you as a horror movie, then you aren’t paying attention. The film’s only flaw as drama, I would submit is the unnecessary inclusion of a lengthy “re-cap” montage near the end, which repeats footage and information we already understand.
Otherwise, The Bay is near-perfect horror film for the Web 2.0 Age, and one that reminds us that even if we capture an unfolding disaster with our phone cameras and computers, we may be powerless to understand that disaster, let alone stop it. The film also suggests that the seeds of our destruction are encoded into the very principles of (irresponsible) capitalism that today control the levers of power. The conflict here is that we have democratized our media access and channels -- so that we can report on anything, anywhere, with our own devices -- but the power to control what goes into our very food and water is still held by a few.
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