Spooky season is nearly here! Can you believe how quick this year has gone, September already god it’s flown by, anyway with that being said spooky season brings not just Halloween but horror movies yay! And we’re starting off in underrated territory oooh, we’re kicking off with a film I like to call “Jaws meets Cabin Fever” it’s a film titled The Bay.

Released way back in 2012 I vaguely remember hearing about this film, it didn’t get decent marketing over here in the UK, all I saw was a bunch of trailers that really didn’t give a lot away, I really didn’t know what is was about, so I didn’t really care for it to be honest with you.

After a few years it started coming up on my recommendations, I saw someone talk about it and eventually I bit the bullet, ripped off that band-aid and watched it.

So the film is set in a fictional Chesapeake Bay town where the local corrupt mayor is hosting a luncheon with the townspeople, they complain that the local chicken farm is illegally dumping chicken excrement in to the water.

Two oceanographers find that the bay is forty percent lifeless, after running some tests they find that a parasite has been eating the marine life alive thus prompting an investigation, the mayor declines any thing is wrong and the annual Fourth of July celebrations commence.

Now this is where things go bad, we see various townspeople become violently ill… men, women and children become sick with lesions and blisters on their skin.

This is where the gore comes in, it’s disgusting, it’s gross it’s everything that Cabin Fever was, in fact it takes Cabin Fever and turns it up side down… let me explain.

Cabin Fever was quick, the virus ate away at you at such a rapid pace, The Bay slows it down with such a painful pace, you see bit by bit what these people endure and it’s… disgusting, the lesions and blisters are the first symptom, then you start going insane and then the parasites eat your tongue and emerge from your body.

It’s grim and it certainly is not pleasant viewing, what makes this film scary is the fact that this parasites actually exists… albeit it can’t attack humans as portrayed in the film, and it doesn’t eat the tongue of the fishes… although how they actually do it is still grim, they suck away at the blood until the tongue atrophies away, like I said it’s still grim, they really have zero interest in us humans

The isopods near enough wipe away the town, the CDC eventually work out what is causing the infections, but unfortunately it’s too little too late as the townspeople have succumbed to the infection, the mayor dies in a car accident because the medical staff have died and no one could come to rescue him, in what is the biggest dose of karma I have seen in a film.

The Bay is disgusting, it’s gross it’s… brilliant, and I didn’t know this until the end credits it’s directed by none other than Barry Levinson, you know… Rain Man, Good Morning Vietnam and Wag The Dog… yeah that guy, in what is now his first and only horror film and boy what a film this is.

It’s everything a horror movie fan wants, jump scares, found footage, the whole film is like watching a documentary you get on discovery or nat geo, it works on so many levels and I think it’s why I loved this film so much is because everything worked.

There was no confusing subplot all you had was three main storylines, the townspeople, the doctors and nurses and a young couple with a newborn baby.

Okay well maybe this film does have subplots but they don’t confuse you in anyway shape or form, like I said… it works.

It’s one of my favourite found footage films now, it’s also my favourite sub genre of film, if there’s a found footage movie out I’m right there watching it.

It’s definitely worth a watch if your in to all the body horror stuff, although you do need a strong stomach to really get through this movie.

There is a few disturbing scenes, one is where you can literally hear the screams of people dying, and possibly the most disturbing part of the film is where two cops venture into a house and come across a family that have been robbed of their tongues by the isopods, it’s a digitally enhanced audio clip and it makes for disturbing viewing, especially as you can’t see what is going on, it’s left up too your imagination.

As I’ve said it’s worth a watch that is a given, it gets a 9/10 from me, it’s disgusting, it’s everything horror fans want and crave and then some.

As always… catch ya later 🙂