The Bay – Eco-Review

The Bay 2012.

A seaside Chesapeake Bay town nestled on Maryland’s Eastern Shore thrives on water. When two French researchers find a staggering level of toxicity in the water, they attempt to alert the mayor, but he refuses to create a panic. As a result, a deadly plague is unleashed, turning the people into hosts for a mutant breed of deadly parasites.
Director: Barry Levinson
Writers :Barry Levinson (story), Michael Wallach (story)
Stars: Will Rogers, Kristen Connolly, Kether Donohue
Taglines: Panic feeds on fear.
Runtime: 84 min

The Eco Disaster flick The Bay turned out to be an enjoyable foray into the realm of found footage horror. The film uses a variety of techniques and mediums in an effort to deliver an unique experience in what is essentially an over saturated sub-genre of horror. Skype, Facetime, Google, Youtube, Webcams, and Blogging are all used to compile the tragic story of a small Chesapeake Bay town undergoing, what appears to be a viral outbreak. It was nice to see other avenues used to deliver the ‘found footage’ element of the film; other than the standard night vision equipped DV cams of the genre. In fact the entire film is an eyewitness account given by a young intern journalist Donna Thompson(Kether Donohue) via Skype after the events of The Bay take place.

Stranded

Stranded. 2013.

Four isolated astronauts on board a bio-dome space craft, experience a ghostly intercession after a meteor storm, leading to paranoia, fear and death.

Director: Roger Christian
Writer: Christian Piers Betley
Stars: Christian Slater, Brendan Fehr, Amy Matysio
Taglines: Germinate. Contaminate. Annihilate…
Budget: $2,000,000

Official Synopsis: “Gerard (Christian Slater) leads three other astronauts on a mission,when a meteor suddenly collides with their space station putting the lives of the entire crew in danger. Those on board quickly learn that spores from the meteorite can replicate cell structure, reproduce, and mutate. Ava, the only female astronaut becomes infected, showing signs of pregnancy at a rapid rate. Within 36 hours she gives birth to a creature that mutates into the life form of another crew member. As the astronauts begin to experience this sinister presence, the virus spreads and Gerard urges for the killing of Ava. The alien being targets the crew one by one, leaving those remaining to destroy it before all are killed.”
Courtesy of Horrormovies.ca I dunno…..Sci-Fi plague horror starring Christian Slater; something just doesn’t add up here. I guess we’ll see.

[sic]Apps: Plague Inc.

Plague Inc. IOS.

“Plague Inc. is a unique mix of high strategy and terrifyingly realistic simulation. Can you infect the world?
Your pathogen has just infected ‘Patient Zero’. Now you must bring about the end of human history by evolving a deadly, global Plague whilst adapting against everything humanity can do to defend itself.” Ndemic Creations.

Honestly I couldn’t begin to tell you how much cash I have spent on apps for my various I-devices. Whether it is the kids’ iPods, me and wifey’s iPhone’s or our iPads – it seems like there is a new cool game or writing app or flavor of the week just waiting on the app store to rob me of my hard earned dollars. With credit cards and iTunes cards it’s so damn easy to idly spend money; without really noticing it. Ahhh it’s just $0.99, that’s nothing, no big deal. After about five or six hundred times it adds up! Anyway more to the point; I tend to lean toward the RPG, Sim or Strategy areas of the games categories, and being the horror addict that I am, I try to scoop up anything that looks good, scary, bloody, zombie (not Plants vs Zombies – I’m not that guy), crazy or otherwise. I purchased Plague Inc. quite awhile ago and have enjoyed countless hours of phone/iPad gaming since. The game is basically a global plague outbreak simulator. One can control the evolution of virus’s, bacteria, fungal spores, nano-plagues and more; tailoring them through a realistic gene based customization process. You want your virus to be highly effective in hot climates and transmitted by mosquito’s; sure why not. How about you strain of bacteria annihilating the western world through it’s specialization in drug resistance and cold climates; causing insanity and sores in the process, yep. The various combinations determine how lethal a plague is, or how fast and where it would spread. Good times. The game takes place on a map of earth with all the major countries represented. Realistic news tickers highlight world events while keeping you informed of the emerging threat of plague. The fun really starts when the global death toll begins to rise while the various countries begin to combat the plague. If your a fan of viral outbreak apocalyptic shit and have and extra $0.99 in your jeans pockets, then buy Plague Inc. Apocalyptic mayhem, you control! Plague Inc. on the App Store.

Next Up: buying another app, and another, and another, and another, and……

The Gerber Syndrome

The Gerber Syndrome. 2011.

“The Gerber’s Syndrome is an contagious viral disease that was discovered in Germany in 2008 and spread all over the world. It is extremely contagious, fast spreading, and deadly. This syndrome is very difficult to spot, because it’s like a normal dose of the flu, with all the subsequent symptoms that most of us are familiar with; but later, the virus affects the brain cells causing serious damage to the central nervous system. A TV crew is making a documentary about the disease and the way society is coping with it by documenting the stories of three people who are dealing with Gerber’s Syndrome: Melissa is a young girl that has been infected, Doctor Ricardi is the doctor who is following her and Luigi is a member of the CS, the security organization that has to deal with infected people. The TV crew follow the lives of this characters, becoming characters themselves since they are constantly in the action. We see how the syndrome progress in Melissa and the way her family and Doctor.”   Indastria Film.

Directors: Maxi Dejoie, Maxì Dejoie
Writers: Maxi Dejoie, Maxì Dejoie
Stars: Valentina Bartolo, Elisabetta Fischer, Pia Lanciotti
Runtime: 88 min

Rec pretty much started my love of foreign found footage horror flicks. Most of them are pretty bad, but you get the odd decent entry (nothing is coming to mind at the moment). I actually ended up posting this after surfing Youtube in search of obscure horror trailers. There really isn’t much info on this film other than what can be gleaned from the trailer. A camera crew is following some type of disease (CDC type) control unit around some foreign country investigating the spread of a wierdly named virus, The Gerber Syndrome. The Gerber Syndrome @ IMDb.

Next Up: actually find and watch this thing…..

Rec4: Apocalypse

Rec Apocalypse. 2013.

Angela Vidal, the young television reporter who entered the building with the fireman, manages to make it out alive. But what the soldiers don’t know is that she carries the seed of the strange infection. She is to be taken to a provisional quarantine facility, a high-security installation where she will have to stay in isolation for several days. An old oil tanker, miles off shore and surrounded by water on all sides, has been especially equipped for the quarantine. IMDb. I’m really stoked for the latest installment of the Rec franchise to come out, I loved Rec and Rec2. Rec3 was complete trash but by the sounds of things they are bringing things back to the original storyline. Thank god. Here’s the teaser for Rec4 Apocalypse it pretty much just re hashes the first 2 installments but it’s all there is at the moment.

Next Up: “insert funny moniker here”