Scientists Pan 'Bay Horror' Film

Scientists find a little to like in 'Bay' film

Baltimore-born film director Barry Levinson has said his new eco-horror movie, "The Bay," about a Chesapeake Bay turned deadly by environmental abuse, is "80 percent factual."

Bay scientists and one activist who've seen it say the film, which opened Friday, does touch on some very real issues affecting the bay. But they say the artistic license taken with the facts and the gore that makes it a horror movie may overwhelm any back story about what's wrong with the Chesapeake.

Yes, I always expect my horror films to be reality based, say for example "Alien vs. Predator" and "Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus" (wherein a giant Megalodon shark jumps into the air and eats a jumbo jet):



After all, aliens exist (right, Manuel?), predators exist, Megalodons used to exist and large octopuses exist, so those films are about 80% factual.

"They got enough science to be dangerous," said Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, who has studied coastal environments around the world. The film accurately portrays the Chesapeake as in diminished ecological health, he said, and the creatures that deliver the horror are real enough.

"Beyond that, you have to be prepared to view this as a metaphor," he concluded.

Someday, probably a rainy, windy day in the middle of winter, it will come on the SciFi Channel, no Deadliest Catches, American Pickers Pawn Stars or even gold hunters will be on, so I'll probably watch it.  And who knows, maybe I'll nap during the worst parts.