THE BAY

In the picturesque coastal town of Claridge, Maryland, two marine biologists during their research detect high levels of toxicity in the water, possibly caused by chicken waste dumped into the bay by a local factory. This is accompanied by an unsettling fish die-off, alarming the authorities. The mayor of Claridge downplays the danger and asks not to create alarmism, especially because the annual Crab Festival is about to take place, which is the highlight for tourism and the town's economy. But the situation complicates, and when the residents of Claridge begin to develop blisters and pustules all over their bodies, it becomes clear that the water is infested with a dangerous parasite mutated by pollution. In the current international horror landscape, there is a rampant trend to produce mockumentaries, whether found footage or compilations of different materials (as in this case), we have now reached awareness, as well as saturation, that making films in this way costs little and usually yields a lot. The culprit was that 'Paranormal Activity' which revived the trend and gave the film world the director, now mostly a producer, Oren Peli, but from 2007 to today we have had all kinds of P.O.V.s, with contaminations that go far beyond horror ' its usual and most prolific territory ' touching even comedy and science fiction. In our reference genre, perhaps only an eco-vengeance was missing, considering that aliens, zombies, demons, serial killers, and ghosts have now invaded the screens of half the world, and it is the father of this phenomenon, Oren Peli, along with colleague Jason Blum, who puts the money for the production of 'The Bay'. As per the manual, 'The Bay' gathers all the classic elements of eco-vengeance, those that made this subgenre popular especially at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s. We will therefore have the small community that supports the country's economy on a single annual event ' in this case the Crustacean Festival celebrated on July 4th coinciding with Independence Day ' and which is threatened precisely on that occasion by a danger that comes from the water, as happened in the seminal 'Jaws' or in 'Piranha'. Just like then, the authorities and the mayor in particular downplay the facts and the population pays the terrifying consequences. And if then the threat was embodied by white sharks, killer fish in the sense of piranhas or barracudas, giant octopuses or what have you, in 'The Bay' the threat is always strictly generated by man and his thirst for progress (this time the steroids contained in the chicken feed, whose excrement ends up clouding the water of the bay) that leads to the mutation of isopods. But what are isopods? These are crustaceans, specifically in 'The Bay' an aquatic parasitic variation known by the scientific name Cymothoa exigua or commonly the tongue-eating louse. These creatures, usually the size of a little finger's nail, sneak into fish through the gills, anchor to the tongue, and devour it, replacing it and feeding on the food that the fish themselves eat, often leading them to death. As in every eco-vengeance worth its salt, in 'The Bay' too, the animals involved are subject to size mutation and thus, as big as mice, they also attack humans not limiting themselves to eating the tongue ' which would already be terrible ' but devouring their other internal organs. The idea, which came to director Barry Levinson upon learning of a fact that actually occurred in 2009 in a town in the Gulf of California, is one of great impact that lends itself to generating sufficiently gruesome horror suitable for summer audiences. Interest is further increased by the technique used, which in this case employs as many as 21 different points of view, between iPhones and point-and-shoot cameras and CCTV. But in the end, 'The Bay' disappoints and finds in the language of the mockumentary one of its weak points. First of all, such a vast array of points of view, with a consequent lack of real main characters (yes, there is the narrator's voice of the reporter Donna Thompson who wants to spread the facts she survived, but we cannot consider her the true 'eye of the viewer'), tends to disperse the narrative and actions, causing a lack of involvement and identification on the part of the viewer. Precisely what is normally an advantageous characteristic of P.O.V., therefore, here is lost in a hybrid between a rough documentary and a vlog. As a consequence, in the film there are many, perhaps too many, talks, with continuous sessions of explanation of the facts to the detriment of the action and tension. Levinson mostly does not play to scare, the suspense scenes can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and some of them end too quickly. Here and there, instead, the disgust is played with, with the impressive consequences that the action of the parasites have on the body of those who host them, which generate pustules, blisters, and in rare moments even bloody corroded flesh perforated. Despite this intent of extreme realism, 'The Bay' benefits from an editing, a soundtrack, and above all sound effects to emphasize the scary scenes, thus somewhat betraying the intentions and approaching the construction of which one of the first modern films of this type, 'Diary of the Dead' by George Romero, availed itself. Substantially, 'The Bay' is a wasted opportunity, a strange object that dives headfirst into the current mockumentary wave without managing to capture either the merits of this technique or those of the eco-vengeance subgenre to which it subscribes. It is curious to note at the helm of this work is the Oscar winner Barry Levinson, director of films such as 'Good Morning Vietnam', 'Rain Man', and 'Sleepers'.