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[DVD Review] Found Footage ‘The Bay’ Lacks Thrills

Published

11 years ago

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The Bay is completely unconventional in the way it tells its tale of an ecological disaster. Through iPhone footage, webcams, surveillance video – you name it – the movie tells the story of Claridge, Maryland and the tainted water that brings on a plague of sorts. Ultimately, it’s just not very scary.

The Bay tries. Directed by Academy Award winner Barry Levinson, who won for Rain Man back in 1988, the film has been compared to the likes of Cloverfield in its style. I personally didn’t like Cloverfield, but it was far more thrilling than The Bay. What holds together this conundrum of footage is the parasitic culprit that is causing boils and death amongst the residents of a Claridge. It’s vile. The effects are there, gross and disturbing – but they aren’t scary. Unsettling, maybe, but not terrifying.

What troubles The Bay from being a superior film is there are just too many styles of footage sewn together like a bad Frankenstein’s monster. Too many jumps from surveillance to phone footage to video cameras that are awkwardly and weakly held together by the supposed narrator, a journalist played by Kether Donohue. Donohue, from the start, seems either like a convincing reluctant storyteller or a badly written one. Her pauses and mannerisms in the way she tells the supposed government cover-up about Claridge is just not the sturdiest glue for the story.

The story itself, be it weakly pieced by the abundance of angles it is told, seems a wee bit under thought. If such an incident were to occur, one would hope the CDC wouldn’t sit around questioning the doctors involved and actually take action. And even still, if the script were any way more solid, the storytelling method would still be a distraction.

The DVD is nothing very exciting. With the multitude of mediums used, the picture quality is all over the place. That being said, the 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio remains consistent throughout. The special features, too, are nothing exciting. There is an audio commentary with Barry Levinson where he only speaks every so often with a few comments – very much unlike most DVDs- plus a featurette Into the Unknown: Barry Levinson on The Bay. The same exact comments, more or less, are stated again in the featurette – the fact that making a film out of different types of footage is a challenge, etc, etc – more or less facts that one could gather on their own watching the movie.

In the end, the DVD is not really worth the purchase unless you’re a diehard fan of the film. The Bay is a nice experiment in the found footage genre, however with a lack of thrills, it is not a memorable one.

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‘Mute Witness’ – Watch the Trailer for Arrow Video’s 4K Restoration of the 1995 Horror Movie [Exclusive]

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4 days ago

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April 12, 2024

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The 1995 horror movie Mute Witness has found a whole new audience here in 2024, with Shudder finally bringing the cat-and-mouse thriller to streaming earlier this month.

Additionally, Arrow Video is bringing Mute Witness to 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray for the very first time on June 11, and we’ve scored the trailer for their brand new restoration.

Watch the trailer below and read on for everything you need to know!

Director Anthony Waller (The Piper, An American Werewolf in Paris) combines cat-and-mouse suspense with classic intrigue in Mute Witness, an updated take on the Hitchcockian thriller in which the only witness to a brutal crime can neither speak nor cry out in terror.

Limited Edition Bonus Features include:

  • 4K restoration approved by director Anthony Waller
  • 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in HDR10
  • Restored original lossless stereo soundtrack
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Brand new audio commentary by writer/director Anthony Waller
  • Brand new audio commentary with production designer Matthias Kammermeier and composer Wilbert Hirsch, moderated by critic Lee Gambin
  • The Silent Death, brand new visual essay by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, examining Mute Witness and its relationship with snuff films
  • The Wizard Behind the Curtain, brand new visual essay by author and critic Chris Alexander, exploring the phenomenon of the film-within-a-film
  • Original “Snuff Movie” presentation, produced to generate interest from investors and distributors, featuring interviews with Anthony Waller and members of the creative team
  • Original location scouting footage
  • Original footage with Alec Guinness, filmed a decade prior to the rest of Mute Witness
  • Teaser trailer
  • Trailer
  • Image gallery
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Adam Rabalais
  • Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Adam Rabalais
  • Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Michelle Kisner

In the film, Billy Hughes (Marina Zudina) is a mute special effects artist working on a low budget American slasher movie being shot in Russia. Accidentally locked in the studio late one night, she stumbles upon two men shooting what appears to be a snuff film. Having borne witness to their victim’s final moments, Billy desperately flees – but this is only the start of a protracted night of terror, drawing her and her friends into a tangled web of intrigue, involving the KGB, the Moscow police… and a mysterious crime kingpin known as “The Reaper.”

Arrow Video previews the new release, “Filmed on location in Moscow and co-starring Fay Ripley (Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) and Evan Richards (Society), Mute Witness is an unpredictable, nerve-shreddingly tense viewing experience. Now fully restored in 4K and presented alongside a host of new and recently unearthed bonus materials, there has never been a better opportunity to discover – or rediscover – this gem of 90s thriller cinema.”

You can pre-order your copy from Diabolik today.

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