The Bay Review: Barry Levinson Mimics an Amateur YouTube Documentarian

Comments (0) By Karina Longworth Thursday, Nov 1 2012
...continued from page 1

In practice, despite a handful of legit creepy moments, the film's concern with superficial realism prevents it from really hitting home; its fuzzy, fractured depiction of disaster never comes close to conjuring the "holy shit it could happen here don't touch that doorknob" real-world paranoia of last year's artfully Hollywood-ized disaster film, Contagion.

Tapping into authentic fears is not beyond the capabilities of the faux-found-footage genre — Sinister is an example of a recent film whose synthetic snuff interludes use aesthetics that read as "real" to activate repressed nightmares. But both Contagion and Sinister terrify by compelling us to use our imaginations to fill in the blanks, and that's a feat beyond The Bay's reach.

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THE BAY | Directed by Barry Levinson | Written by Michael Wallach | Roadside Attractions | Monica 4, Playhouse, Sundance Sunset 5

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edallenpo
edallenpo

Thank you for posting another great review, Karina! I have a little horror movie club with a few of my coworkers from DISH, and this week we decided to bring in movies we have never seen for a horror marathon. The trailer for The Bay looked pretty good, so I added it to the top of my DISH Blockbuster @Home rental queue; I should have it just in time for our little gathering. I know Levinson didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel with this movie, but I would like to see he handles the oft abused form of found footage films.

 
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