The Bay is a 2012 American mockumentary horror film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Michael Wallach, based on an original story created by the duo.

It stars Kether Donohue, Nansi Aluka, Christopher Denham, Frank Deal, and Kristen Connolly and premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.

The opening text explains the footage shown in the film was confiscated by the U.S. government until an anonymous source leaked it for the entire world to see.

As rookie reporter Donna Thompson covers a local Fourth of July celebration, dozens of citizens fall violently ill and exhibit severe lesions.

Dr. Jack Abrams, the head of the Atlantic Hospital, is overwhelmed with patients and contacts the Centers for Disease Control, who initially believe the issue to be caused by a viral outbreak.

After encountering multiple eviscerated fish eaten from the inside out, they realized that the true culprit was massive, mutated tongue-eating lice.

A swarm of fully-grown isopods eventually killed the oceanographers, and their bodies were discovered shortly before the film's events.

The Talmet family sail to Claridge, unaware of the danger as the town has been forcibly quarantined and local law enforcement has shut down cell towers.

They are frightened by a still-living woman hiding in a police car who begs for help before Stephanie hits her, accidentally snapping her neck.

Years later, Donna leaks the gathered footage, revealing that the government managed to kill the isopods by filling the water with chlorine; they then covered up the incident as the result of "unusually high water temperatures" and paid off the few survivors (including Donna) in exchange for silence.

[8] The website's critical consensus states that "Barry Levinson's eco-horror flick cleverly utilizes familiar found-footage methods in service of a gruesome yet atmospheric chiller."