The Bay: A Fresh, Frightening Horror Film

Director Barry Levinson (Sleepers, Rain Man) has delivered one of the more terrifying horror films of the year with The Bay. While certainly not perfect, this film does manage some innovative terror techniques and chills throughout while also serving as a harbinger of horrors to come.

Premise: An exposé documentary released after a covered-up ecological disaster in Maryland. Result: A horrifying and innovative account of monstrous creatures descending upon a town; a concept made more terrifying by its root in reality.

The film is designed as a concerted exposé by a reporter who survived the incident she is presenting.  It is set as a documentary complete with dozens of grafted vantage points, various and unique visuals, and effective use of voice-over.  This reporter, Stephanie (Kristen Connolly), has been able to compile horrifying footage of a mortifying outbreak in Maryland that was subsequently covered up by the government.

This cover up is focused on a short time period years earlier where an entire town on the Chesapeake Bay is wiped out by a mysterious plague.  The plague, it turns out, is a mixture of flesh-eating bacteria and mutated sea louse that infest hosts and quickly devour them alive. While this cover up never fully attains plausibility, there is a certain ring of horrifying truth that will likely influence audience perception.

The film follows several stories through Stephanie’s narration: first, her own story, where the media is convinced that there is a cult murdering people in town.  While this theory is factual erroneous and perhaps even theoretically absurd, this mistake actually serves to heighten the terror: the calamity is so mortifying that no one could even conceive of it as a possibility.

As this string of horrific deaths heightens within Stephanie’s account, audiences are brought back a month prior to follow two scientists who are observing the bay, one from the local University, the other from the prestigious Cousteau Institute.  They provide some of the necessary scientific backstory through their findings of the hideous creatures and their complete devastation of local wildlife, weeks before it impacted the local populace.

This is in addition to chilling exchanges between local doctor Jack Abrams (Stephen Kunken) and CDC Officer Don Donaldson (David Andalman), which ultimately details our National Defenses’ complete lack of preparation vis-à-vis such a crisis.  This amidst hospital waiting rooms that overflow with ever-growing numbers of the afflicted and the dying serves to deepen the horror.

And even these images barely scratch the surface of the pure misery that will be rapidly turning that small American town into a post-apocalyptic graveyard.  The agony and suffering these people endure is largely referenced so as to avoid a complete shockwave of ghastly images, but there is enough provided and enough allusion made to turn any observer’s stomach.  Just the creatures themselves, these horrific prehistoric isopods grown to enormous proportions through catastrophic levels of pollution could make anyone’s skin crawl.

And so, the message in this film ultimately is not simply to talk about theoretical dangers that are as likely as alien invasion or the 2012 apocalypse.  Instead, there is a very real, plausible line drawn between our pollution efforts and the stirrings of just the calamity detailed in this “documentary”.

The genius of this film is the deliberate documentary style that so closely resembles truth and reality as to provide an additional layer of urgency that is not often found in similar fright films.  The use of slow motion, eerie voice overs, and pregnant pauses all serve to heighten the already stifling tension. Also, this style, unlike its cousin -the single-camera story-technique complete with its bobble-head visuals and dizzying swivels- relies on grafting together many vantage points and forms of visual media that provide greater freedoms in which to tell the story.

On the other hand, there are some downsides.  Stephanie’s narration is completely unbelievable: her dialogue and delivery share equal blame, communicating her plight in such a way as to be far too self-aware.  In the end, it comes off as disingenuous.  Further, there are a few too many moments that cinematically icarus melodrama, distracting from the horror unnecessarily.

But overall, the film is a fairly well acted, chilling account of a plausible horror.  It is fast-paced while also allowing the story to build through the clever use of the documentary style.  This provides it the diversity of view and plot it requires to tell a multi-faceted story while still keeping observers frightened throughout.  In the end, The  Bay accomplishes its goal of spine-tingling terror, and may make each of us take pause when considering our next swim.

Rating: 7 – A refreshing Champagne that a cute bartender comp’d you!

The Cabin in the Woods: A Completely Unexpected, Reinvented Fun Something-Like-Horror Film!

Although Drew Goddard may be relatively new to directing, his involvement with Lost and Cloverfield alone make expectations for The Cabin in the Woods quite high.  And fortunately, through a completely post-modern, reinvention of the horror genre, complete with a tongue-in-cheek, smart self-awareness, Cabin does everything but disappoint.

Premise: Five innocent friends go for a break at a remote cabin in the woods, where they get more than they bargained for. Result: A brilliant horror-comedy twist that updates the genre and gives us hope for the future.

It only takes a few moments to realize that Cabin is going to be different than other horror films.   Goddard does an amazing job of destabilizing audience expectations instantly with a juxtaposition within the introductory frames of an ominous, ancient ritual played to a backdrop of equally menacing score with the sudden hand off to Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford) who putt along in their golf cart down a tunnel in a lab some place, prepping for some cruel experiment the way only mad scientists crossed with Dilbert can. And the Raimi-esque title shot to close out the sequence is just the final nudge audiences will need to realize they have walked into a completely different film than they thought.

Fortunately, and for once, the bait-and-switch is actually to the advantage of the fooled.  Cabin morphs instantly into one of the funnier and more frightening films of the decade, perfectly blending the sweet and savory of cinematic flavorings.  And audiences will be in on the joke quickly as well.  Each character is perfectly constructed both as horror cliché and as stand-up comedian, accenting both the foreboding of events to come and the noticeable hilarity of it all.

Enter Dana (Kristen Connolly) and Jules (Anna Hutchison) who have planned a trip to some remote cabin some place deep in the woods that Jules’ boyfriend, hunk and sweetling Curt (Chris Hemsworth), has invited them to.  There is no real back story here except to say that Curt’s cousin has recently acquired the cabin and that they all need a getaway.  Oh, and Dana is coming off a recent, painful breakup with her professor and the weekend is but a thinly veiled attempt to hook her up with McSteamy Jr., Holden (Jesse Williams). 

Of course, all this cliché is handled with aplomb, as the film is clearly aware of the flimsy nature of this set up; but the cut-aways to Sitterson/Hadley, their controlled lab and the covert-CIA nature of it all ensure audiences that everything has been pre-ordained. Oh, and add Marty (Fran Kranz) for ingenious stoner-comic relief, and you have yourself a deeply amusing and workable ignition.

As the film progresses, Goddard crafts scene after scene with the titillating formula of equal parts terror and laughter. While there is clearly the terrifying harbinger, Mordecai (Tim De Zarn), who plays his part perfectly as the creepy Hills-Have-Eyes-esque inbred gas station attendant, his frightening role is completely, and hysterically underplayed, by a speaker-phone gag and narration by our faithful puppeteers.  It all comes together wonderfully, with all the right hints of humorous foreshadowing and self-awareness.

The remainder of the film is a rollercoaster ride of terrifying scenes followed closely by brilliant satire.  The film completely understands the role it is playing as entertainer and manages to give you the best of both worlds.  As horrifying events take place on screen, audiences will be jerked from left to right, feeing one emotion, then another, then a completely distinct third in rotational sequence.  The pacing of the film, the jokes, and the monsters, all add to this cinematic crucible.

While the film ultimately falls someplace between horror and comedy, it is safe to say that it is a top caliber contestant in the horror-film-dark-comedy genre, like Drag Me to Hell and the Evil Dead films have been before.  Nevertheless, there is something far more modern here, more interesting than even these films delivered.  Here, Cabin offers us a story made better by how it is told, by the perpetual wink from its creators, and by the completely unpredictable nature of all the twists and turns we think we expect.  Too few are films that know audiences so well and can get away with fooling them so effectively.

The acting in the film is spot on.  Connolly, Hutchison, Helmsworth and Williams all quite effectively play their parts as puppets in the game, and manage to shift along character spectra effectively, when the unnatural controls of their environment manipulate them to do so.  However, Kranz, Jenkins and Whitford are the true stars here, delivering some astounding comedic timing that keeps the film fresh and exhilarating. Every time they speak, audiences will be drawn to them like puppies to kibble, eagerly and patiently anticipating their next treat.  And the perfectly orchestrated surprise by a special guest star at the end of the film really brings Cabin full circle.

The only drawbacks to Cabin are that it is far less horror than might have been desired.  Clearly, this was the purpose and what we are given is likely better than what we expected; but for strict horror buffs without the appreciation for a post-modern twist, this may miss the mark.  Additionally, the ending chaotic sequences are completely preposterous.  While on some level audiences may be too distracted by their own enjoyment to note it at the time, the resolution is brought about by an event that seems too simplistic, even for the tongue-in-cheek nature of this film.  But as the only event in the film likely to leave a bad after taste, audiences will likely take it and ask for another.

Overall, therefore, The Cabin in the Woods is a delightful nightmare, mixing all the right ingredients at all the right servings to give us a film we never knew we wanted.  But after we have tasted it, there’s no going back.

Rating: 8 – An expensive red wine and juicy steak