By George & Josh Bate
For some, adolescence is far scarier than any horror movie could ever possibly be – times in which social anxiety soars to new heights and everyday feels like life-and-death. In his feature debut, Charlie Polinger poignantly and disturbingly captures this period of extreme angst and dread.
The Plague follows an all-boys water polo camp in the early 2000s. Socially anxious twelve-year-old Ben (Everett Blunck) begins to ingratiate himself to the other adolescents in the camp, which includes the charming yet menacing Jake (Kayo Martin), when he realizes that the others ostracize social outcast Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), claiming that he has an illness they call ‘The Plague.’ The dynamic places Ben in a morally dubious situation: does he continue to align himself with the bullies or does he act on his inner kindness and befriend Eli?
Despite telling a grounded and (for many) deeply relatable story devoid of otherworldly terrors, The Plague looks, acts, sounds, and feels like a bonafide horror movie. A piercing score from Johan Lenox, known for his orchestral collaborations with A$AP Rocky and Travis Scott, twists the “ooooo” sound kids say when someone is in trouble into a viscerally unsettling sonic backdrop that perfectly accompanies and amplifies the ‘horror’ that unfolds. ‘Horror’, in particular psychological horror, is certainly an accurate characterization of Polinger’s film – there are more similarities here to Full Metal Jacket and Black Swan than there are to Lady Bird and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Like Kubrick and Aronofsky’s classics, The Plague isn’t the kind of film that scares through overt thrills; rather, it slowly burrows deep under your skin to infect the viewer with a palpable sense of dread, likely evoking memories of troubled adolescence for many.
The horrors of The Plague feel as unsettling as they do due to Polinger’s fearlessness in unflinchingly depicting the crude and uncensored side of adolescent boys. Absent of any and all sugarcoating, the film feels raw and accurate in a manner few films about kids ever do. In part, this is because Polinger tells a story of social vulnerability through the eyes of young boys, a subject seldom given the attention it deserves due to the constraints of traditional masculinity. Upon his introduction, our lead Ben is the personification of anxiety and, over the course of the film, sees his anxieties evolve into fear, dread, and depression, collectively and refreshingly showcasing the vulnerabilities of boys at this age.
The raw accuracy of The Plague also spawns from the trio of lead child performances from Everett Blunck, Kayo Martin, and Kenny Rasmussen. Blunck, who is best known as the breakout star of Griffin in Summer, forges a character in Ben that desperately tries to push his anxiety away and fit in with the rest of the boys. Blunck does exceptionally well in conveying the inner deliberation Ben experiences due to the moral conundrum he finds himself in, a facet of his performance that is all the more admirable given how Blunck doesn’t externalize his ethical concerns with dialogue. Martin, meanwhile, crafts a genuinely dislikable and unnervingly charming character in Jake, who shares various personality features with full-fledged cult leaders. A testament to Martin’s performance, there are a number of moments in The Plague that elicited audible dismay from us, such is the extent to which Martin troubles Ben, Eli, and, in turn, the audience. Speaking of Eli, Rasmussen rounds out the trio with a similarly impressive performance. Rasmussen excels in making Eli awkward, endearing, and pitiful, yet not entirely innocent and devoid of problems. Typically, a bullied character like Eli in a film like this is presented as a pristine child, but Polinger and Rasmussen make Eli a far more nuanced and realistic character in evoking a mix of reactions from the audience.
Joel Edgerton serves as producer, the first production under his Five Henrys banner, and also stars as the boys’ water polo coach Daddy Wags. Despite his big name status amongst a cast of newcomers, however, Edgerton plays a relatively small role in the film, only periodically appearing when the plot requires. When he is on screen though, Edgerton achieves a similarly natural and restrained performance. His character frustrates given his lack of attention to the bullying on display, but, like the other characters in The Plague, becomes far more nuanced with scenes in the latter half that add context and personality to his character.
Thanks to these phenomenal performances and Polinger’s assured directing, the psychological horror of The Plague ramps up and culminates in a finale that is fittingly grounded and appropriate for the preceding story. It’s an ending, and a film more generally, that disturbs, rather than enthuses, but not all films are intended to be enjoyable experiences. This isn’t to say The Plague is bleak necessarily, although the film certainly leaves a disquieting impression that lingers far after the credits roll. This disquieting impression, however, doesn’t transcend to or evolve into anything more profound; the film delivers an uncompromised depiction of the cruelties and anxieties of adolescence, but there are limits to the substance of the story and characters beyond that.
VERDICT: 7.5/10
Capturing the cruelties and anxieties of adolescence with disturbing accuracy and the sensibilities of a horror movie, The Plague is a stirring and thought-provoking debut feature from writer/director Charlie Polinger. A piercing score from Johan Lenox and directing that evokes Full Metal Jacket and Black Swan more than adolescent films like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Lady Bird foster a film that slowly burrows under your skin and leaves a lasting, disquieting impression. Three remarkable child actor performances from Everett Blunck, Kayo Martin, and Kenny Rasmussen give The Plague a decided rawness and accuracy, with characters that are the definition of nuanced. Culminating in a fittingly grounded yet nonetheless disturbing finale, The Plague may not transcend its unflinching portrayal of adolescence into something more profound or substantive, but evokes strong emotion and vivid memories to childhood regardless.