The Plague: a coming of age under (very) high tension (critic)

With its cast of novice actors, Charlie Polinger’s first film examines this age of preadolescence where everything seems insurmountable. Where the quest for identity is corrupted by masculinity, horror germinates.

2003, San Diego, water polo summer camp. There is the smell of chlorine, the sound of tap dancing on the cold tiles, the voices echoing in the locker rooms. A little further on, the dive of a group of boys into the water of the swimming pool draws ours into their little group. What follows – harassment induced by the group effect and violence as an initiation ritual – hits us head-on. Ben too: a new kid aged 12, his descent into hell begins with an insidious rumor. Eli, the outcast of the gang, has the plague (a childish insult to designate his eczema). Faced with the cruelty of his comrades, Ben’s survival instinct kicks in. Taking part in the mockery will only protect him for a time since he will, in turn, become the beast of the fair.

We could have seen it coming, since Charlie Polinger uses well-established archetypes: the easily influenced boy, too fearful to find his place within a herd whose leader (the disturbing Kayo Martin) shows his fangs at the slightest misstep. We could have seen it coming, yes, if the filmmaker didn’t take great pleasure in disorienting us by playing with the sound and visual codes of three heterogeneous genres, which he shatters here. The camaraderie of the initiatory story disintegrates in favor of the intensive and paranoid scratching of body horror, a tipping point towards the thriller, the tension of which permeates each game of water polo in this children’s camp. Like Ben, Charlie Polinger plays brilliantly on several levels. When the first ends up accepting himself as he is after having sacrificed a little of his conscience, the second establishes himself as a filmmaker to follow closely since he certainly signs with The Plague the most trying coming of age of the year.

By Charlie Polinger. With Joel Edgerton, Everett Blunck, Kayo Martin… Duration: 1h35. Released June 3, 2026.