Spooktoberween #14 and 15 Red State and The Bay

I had this whole big preamble in my head about the different types of directors. The gist was that, after awhile, you get kind of pigeon-holed into certain categories. Often, directors look to break out of these constraints by taking a trip into a specific genre ghetto (Tarantino and Rodriguez both went Grindhouse and have yet to return). Today, I watched two flicks that provided their creators a chance to spread their wings a bit and try something outside their comfort zones.

Kevin Smith is mostly known for his dick and fart joke movies (which are, in my opinion, very funny). He puts just enough pathos in them to make them work as character pieces but they are mostly just delivery systems for intricate scatology. With Red State, he decided to branch out into "horror." Despite the first 30 minutes or so having a horror feel, this is really a movie about some of Smith's pet peeves. He has issues with the Westboro Baptist Church so he fictionalized them and extrapolated a Branch Davidian scenario wherein they are wanted for violating gun laws.

This ground was covered with a little more slickness in the Robert Sean Leonard movie Standoff and (even separated by 10+ years) this movie suffers by comparison. It is stuffed with fine actors and, as always, Smith has a great ear for dialogue. Melissa Leo, John Goodman, Anna Gunn, Badger from Breaking Bad, Stephen Root, Kevin Pollack and Michael Parks all turn in top notch performances (even if some amount to glorified cameos). Unfortunately, the movie doesn't hang together as a coherent statement. It feels more like Smith running down a checklist of "Points I Want To Make" regarding Christianity, Homosexuality, Government Incompetence, Government Evil and maybe a smidgen of "can't we all just listen to each other" thrown in. 

Three horny teen boys are lured out to a trailer with the promise of four way sex with Melissa Leo (which...really?). They are soon drugged and awaken to find themselves in a bit of a nightmare. There is a very long sermon from Michael Parks as the head of this extremely violent church. The events that lead the ATF to the compound all arise logically enough but a lot of the impact in the second half of the film relies on dramatic irony and actions from a character we barely even see in the first half of the film.

There are moments where Smith's wicked sense of humor can't help but peek through, but he mostly plays it straight. I understand he ran out of funding and had to ditch his originally ending, which could have played so much better than the talkathon that does serve as an overly-long coda. Some editing, some script tightening and just a tad more money to carry the whole thing through would have done this movie a world of good.

Barry Levinson has not been stuck in as narrow a niche as Kevin Smith but he has not been known for working in genres outside of drama and comedy. With The Bay, he jumps into found footage horror and proves he can handle it pretty well.

The Bay is a very ambitious found footage feature in that it is culled from a variety of sources. At several points, Levinson apparently just says "fuck it" and goes for old-fashioned third person filmed shots (there is a long shot at the end in particular that breaks the rules). Also, one of the perks of the found footage horror genre is that you don't get to lean on music cues to ratchet up the tension, but Levinson employs some here.

Presented as a compilation of classified footage that the government has worked to keep hidden for the past few years, it tells the story of a deadly outbreak in a small Maryland town on the 4th of July. Now, why the outbreak happens then, I am not entirely sure. The conditions that resulted in the outbreak were present for a long time before hand but I guess this is dramatic license?

Plot holes aside, the development of the affliction (I am purposely being vague because finding out the true nature of the problem is one of the better aspects of the movie) is handled with the strong hand of a master storyteller. I was worried, initially, that there were too many characters and plot threads to follow but Levinson keeps the balls in the air pretty well. We follow a family with a new born as they sail their boat into the bay, the mayor of the town, the police force, a local reporter who was just there to do a fluff piece on the 4th of July festivities, two researchers who are found dead two weeks before the events of the movie, a local doctor, a teen girl face-timing with her best friend and a variety of other sources that come and go as they are needed. At about an hour and a half, Levinson keeps things moving at a good clip. Of course, with all the characters and the low running time, you never really get to know any of them very well (so that drama such as a police standoff or the final fates of any of the characters don't have much of an impact). It won't tug at your heartstrings but it just might keep you entertained for 90 minutes.

Like Red State, The Bay has some finger pointing to do at the government as well as big business. When the immoral collides with the incompetent, evil wins the day. Both of these non-horror directors had something to say along those lines. One just said it a little better.