The Bay

The Bay is a horror and science fiction film set in the small Maryland coastal town of Claridge on the Chesapeake Bay. Around the Fourth of July, an environmental crisis strikes the community, and residents begin falling ill with a mysterious infection that spreads rapidly. A young journalism student named Donna Thompson, working her first assignment as a reporter, witnesses the events as the celebrations are interrupted and the local hospital proves unable to identify the cause. The story is assembled from footage said to have surfaced later: emergency calls, amateur video, security camera recordings and other material, suggesting efforts to establish what happened and whether it was officially acknowledged.

Barry Levinson directed the film from a screenplay by Michael Wallach, with Levinson producing alongside Jason Blum and Oren Peli. It is the twenty-second of twenty-eight films he has directed in chronological order, following You Don't Know Jack and preceding The Humbling. Kristen Connolly plays Stephanie, Will Rogers plays Alex, Kether Donohue plays Donna Thompson, and the cast includes Michael Beasley, Christopher Denham and Kenny Alfonso. Filmed on a budget of about two million dollars, it earned roughly the same amount worldwide.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 5.7 from around 33,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 5.8 from over 900 votes. A film critics' rating of 6.5 from 87 reviews places it slightly above those audience scores.