The Bay (2012)

The opening text explains that the footage shown was confiscated by the U.S. government in 2009, until an anonymous source leaked it for the entire world to see.

Claridge, a town located on Maryland's Eastern Shore, thrives on its water supply. Consequently, the nearby chicken farm has come under fire for polluting the Chesapeake Bay by dumping chicken excrement and other toxins into the water. As rookie reporter Donna Thompson covers a local Fourth of July celebration, dozens of citizens fall violently ill and exhibit severe lesions. Overwhelmed with patients, Dr. Jack Abrams, the head of the Atlantic Hospital, contacts the CDC, which initially believes a viral outbreak is the cause. The town descends into chaos as people begin dying en masse within hours: the first casualty is reported by Claridge police that afternoon. Later on, a 911 call is made by a distraught woman reporting that her neighbor is wandering on her property, covered in boils and screaming in agony. Teenager Denise Button and her boyfriend are attacked and killed by an unknown animal while swimming in a creek. Their bodies are never found, but a 12-year-old discovers the camera that documented the incident. Meanwhile, several citizens report bizarre symptoms, including the feeling of bugs in their bodies.

A few months before the outbreak, oceanographers Sam and Jaqueline discovered high toxicity levels in the bay. After encountering multiple fish eaten from the inside out, they realized that the true culprit was massive, mutated tongue-eating lice. The bay water was polluted by massive amounts of excrement from chickens, who were fed steroids for rapid growth. Because of this, the isopods proliferated tremendously, killing off millions of fish and causing 40% of the bay to become lifeless. The lesions result from the isopods eating their hosts from the inside out. Sam and Jaqueline attempted to alert city authorities, but the mayor, John Stockman, ignored the warnings. A swarm of fully-grown isopods eventually killed Sam and Jaqueline and their bodies were later discovered.

The Talmet family, consisting of Alex, Stephanie, and their infant son Andrew, sail to Claridge, unaware of the danger, as the town has been forcibly quarantined and local law enforcement has shut down cell towers. The isopods have also infected Stephanie's parents. Two deputies, Jimson and Paul, answer a call concerning someone screaming in pain; in a digitally enhanced audio recording, Jimson encounters an infected family begging to be killed. Having gone insane from seeing what has happened, he euthanizes them and subsequently murders Paul after one of the isopods bites him. After being confronted by Stockman and Sheriff Lee Roberts, the lesion-covered Jimson kills Roberts and himself. Stockman attempts to flee in Roberts' police car, only to be killed in a collision.

The CDC eventually learns that the water in Claridge has a considerable radioactive rating. The CDC contacts the White House upon learning about the mutated isopods. Dr. Abrams is told that no additional help is forthcoming and that he and the staff should evacuate. Abrams reveals that he is the sole surviving staff member at the hospital but refuses to leave. Upon realizing that he, too, is now infected, he uses his final hours to document the mass of dead bodies within the hospital. Meanwhile, the CDC contacts the DHS, who reveal that they had received the report about the oceanographers but did not report it immediately because they did not want to cause undue panic. They wrote off the chaos as happening in a "small town" and refused to offer help.

Donna and her cameraman, Jim Hoyt, continue to document the carnage despite her station's blog being shut down by the FBI. Donna, in narration, reveals that after fleeing Claridge, she never reported anything else and that Jim later died. The Talmets arrive to find the town mostly deserted, with corpses littering the street. Horrified, they manage to contact a friend, Bill, on Skype to ask for help. However, Alex, who swam in the bay earlier, is infected and dies from isopods crawling out of his neck, while Stephanie escapes unharmed with Andrew. 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. She then reveals that Stephanie still lives but refuses to participate in the film. The movie ends with shots of civilians innocently enjoying the bay water, unaware of the dangers, as 40% of the bay remains lifeless.