When I saw this movie, honestly I was expecting just one thing... Sharks.
Big sharks.
Scary sharks... People making terrible decisions while sharks circle them and thankfully, the movie actually gives you that.
The Bay follows Emma and Lani, two best friends who travel to Thailand for a destination wedding. While they're there, they decide to take a boat tour into an area known for tiger sharks.
Sounds like a nice little adventure, right?
Well... You can already guess where this is going.
The boat ends up in serious trouble, and before long, Emma, Lani and the others are stranded in shark-infested waters with very limited options and that's where the movie really begins.
What I liked about The Bay is the setting... There is something naturally terrifying about being stuck in the middle of the ocean. You can't just run away. You can't hide behind a tree. You can't climb into a building.
You're literally surrounded by water and somewhere underneath you are sharks... That's enough to make me reconsider every holiday I've ever planned.
The movie also does a decent job of making the water feel dangerous. A lot of the shark effects use practical elements, real shark footage and CGI, and one reviewer specifically praised the realism of the sharks and the coastal environment and I appreciated that because some low-budget shark movies give you a shark that looks like it was designed on somebody's laptop during lunch break.
Here, at least, the sharks actually look like sharks... The problem is that The Bay takes its sweet time getting to the good stuff.
The first part spends quite a bit of time introducing the characters and establishing the trip. I understand why the filmmakers did this because it gives you some emotional connection to Emma and Lani before everything goes sideways...
But at some point I was sitting there thinking.. “Guys... we know the boat is going down. Can we get to the sharks now?” and when the sharks finally become more active, the movie gets much better.
There are some genuinely tense moments where you're watching the water and wondering when something is going to appear.
That's actually one of the things I enjoyed most.
The movie doesn't always need to show the shark... Sometimes it's better when you DON'T see it....You just see the water moving.... You see somebody looking terrified... Then suddenly.... SPLASH.
The Bay isn't only about the sharks though.. There's also a human conflict happening among the people trapped on the boat and honestly, that's where things become a little messy.
The movie wants to make the point that humans can sometimes be more dangerous than the animals they're afraid of... It's a pretty obvious environmental message, and the film spends a fair amount of time reminding us that sharks aren't naturally evil monsters. One review praised that ecological angle but also felt the movie became too preachy about it.
I understand the message but sometimes I just wanted to scream...
The acting is okay.... Francesca Eastwood carries a lot of the emotional weight as Emma, while Dani Oliveros gives Lani a good friendship dynamic with her. Alexander Wraith's Mandal also becomes an important part of the survival story.
Nobody is giving us a performance that's going to make me start handing out Oscars, but the cast does enough for this kind of movie and that's really what The Bay is.... It's not trying to be Jaws.
The biggest problem is that the movie can feel slow in places, and some of the human drama isn't as interesting as the actual shark threat. Another review went much harder on the pacing, calling the film dull and arguing that the shark attacks are too infrequent.
I wouldn't go that far... I actually found it entertaining... The movie works best when you're watching Emma and Lani desperately trying to survive in the water. That's where the tension feels strongest.
Once it starts over-explaining its themes, the excitement drops.
Still, for a relatively short movie, The Bay gives you enough suspense, sharks, survival and panic to make it worth a watch if you're into this kind of thing.
It's not perfect.
It's not even close.... But I would rather watch this than some of those ridiculous shark movies where the shark suddenly develops the intelligence of a CIA agent...
Rating: 90/100