Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 19 Ratings

  • Summary: Chaos breaks out in a small Maryland town after an ecological disaster occurs. (Roadside Attractions)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 20
  2. Negative: 1 out of 20
  1. Reviewed by: David Cox
    Oct 29, 2012
    100
    Levinson has always been acutely interested in the minutiae of human behaviour, and it's this concern that makes The Bay the triumph that it is.
  2. Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    Nov 4, 2012
    80
    Is it, on some level, '70s-style horror schlock dressed up with contemporary gimmicks? Sure, but don't act like that's a bad thing! It's schlock with honor, schlock with a conscience, schlock that speaks to the way we live now.
  3. Reviewed by: Matt Glasby
    Feb 16, 2013
    60
    All prologue and no pay-off, but compelling all the same, this curio plays out like Diary Of The Dead with more diaries and fewer dead.
  4. Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    Nov 1, 2012
    25
    The Oscar-winning director of "Rain Man" - whose last film, the abysmal documentary "PoliWood" never went much further than the Tribeca Film Festival - demonstrates he can make a shakycam found-footage horror movie every bit as fake-looking, clumsy and unscary as your average college student working on a $200 budget.

See all 20 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 9
  3. Negative: 4 out of 9
  1. By far the best "found footage" I've seen in recent years. Realistic and pretty close to what could happen in real life, if we screw nature too much. The fact that the film had no "main" heroes fighting with zombie hordes or supernatural beings, really added to the whole experience. Expand
  2. The Bay looks so real, that's why it's so scary.
    There are so many disgusting moments and some really great shocks!
    It's a fine eco-horror
    I've never seen something like that before Expand
  3. I kind like this film after I have watched so many boring,over-performed scary film.We all know after The Rec and The Blair Witch Project. Many scary movies copy their filming way(play out through handled camera). Some movies got succeed like Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield. But some movies are total garbage,like The Devil Inside ,Apollo 18 and so on. But this one, The Bay is really great actually. It focus more on the reaction of the local government and show us clearly how the disease spread out and people get sick and desperate. Expand
  4. The Bay carries on from where Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity left. Unfortunately it doesn't add anything new to the "lost footage"- horror genre that is already beaten to death. Characters lack depth, acting is mediocre at best, the story is inconsistent and offers nothing further to keep it interesting. Expand

See all 9 User Reviews

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