There's
something in the water at Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, as one unfortunate young
reporter (Kristen Connoly) finds out, when she is sent to cover the small
coastal town's July 4th celebrations. When the townsfolk suddenly start
falling ill, and developing bloody legions all over their bodies, the film
crew find themselves caught in the middle of a parasitic outbreak that's
affected the towns water supply.
The local medical centre are baffled as to what's afflicting them, calls for help to the Centre for Disease Control fail to provide any meaningful answers, and with more and more people being admitted, struggle to keep up with the influx.
With the national guard sealing off all the roads, fearing a disease outbreak, the film subsequently shows how the town slowly descends into chaos as the emergency services struggle to cope and the subsequent aftermath that follows.
The film is told in a semi-documentary style, consisting of footage shot by the film crew, interspersed with CCTV footage from around the town, dash-cam footage from the emergency vehicles and internet web-cam footage posted by bloggers documenting their symptoms online (yes its another one of those "found footage" type films like Blair Witch, [REC], Cloverfield etc).
Directed by Barry Levison, who's better known for his more mainstream films like "Sleepers" and "Sphere", overall I was very impressed with this. It did a very good job building up tension as people started falling ill, then showing the local authorities struggling to cope as more and more cases develop. It is however a very low budget film, so you don't get to see the soldiers in hazmat suits coming into the town, instead they're referred to off screen, whilst the film concentrates on how the outbreak effects various folk in the town.
An excellent film, which should even please those who don't normally like "found footage" type films. However, if you don't like creepy crawlies and are a bit squeamish about bugs, you may have a hard time sitting through this (just Google the term ISOPOD to see what these parasites are).
