The Plague (2025) Review: Cruelty in the Deep End

Is The Plague worth watching?

Yes. The Plague is a remarkably assured first feature that captures the terror of being twelve with more precision than almost any film about boyhood, and it plays like a horror movie without needing a monster. Charlie Polinger turns a summer sports camp into a closed world where status can be lost in an instant, and his young cast is uncannily convincing. It is not an easy watch: the discomfort is the point, and viewers looking for a nostalgic summer-camp story should know what they are getting into.

What is The Plague about?

The Plague is set in the summer of 2003 at an all-boys water polo camp. Ben (Everett Blunck), a socially anxious twelve-year-old, arrives hoping to fit in and quickly discovers that the camp runs on a ruthless, unspoken hierarchy, with the confident Jake (Kenny Rasmussen) near the top.

The boys’ favourite target is Eli (Kayo Martin), an awkward outsider with a skin condition that the others treat as contagious, calling it “the plague”. Ben finds himself drawn to Eli while desperately trying to stay on the right side of the group, and the story grows out of that impossible balancing act. Joel Edgerton plays the camp’s coach, a genial adult presence who sees less than he thinks.

Polinger wrote and directed this American drama, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025. It is in English and runs 98 minutes.

Adolescence staged as psychological horror

Polinger’s great insight is to treat preteen social life with the seriousness of a thriller. The camera stays close to Ben, so every whispered joke, ambiguous glance and sudden silence carries a threat. The sound design is especially effective: the echo of the pool, the slap of water and the roar of boys’ voices in the locker room create a claustrophobic, almost sensory unease.

The film borrows the grammar of horror, with lingering close-ups of skin, unsettling underwater shots and a creeping sense of contagion, but it never becomes a genre exercise. The fear is social and physical at once: the dread of being singled out, of your own body betraying you, of becoming the next target.

A young cast of startling honesty

Everett Blunck is extraordinary as Ben. He captures the painful self-consciousness of that age, where every decision about who to sit with or laugh at feels like life or death, and he makes Ben’s moral compromises understandable without ever excusing them. Kayo Martin gives Eli an oddball dignity and unpredictability, while Kenny Rasmussen is chillingly casual as a boy whose power rests on charm as much as cruelty.

Joel Edgerton, in a supporting role, is perfectly judged. His coach is not a villain but a well-meaning adult whose attempts at camaraderie only highlight how little grown-ups understand about the world the boys live in.

The discomfort is the design

The Plague’s commitment to unease may alienate some viewers. There is little conventional relief, humour is mostly cringe-inducing and the film withholds easy moral lessons. That makes it divisive with general audiences even as its craft is widely admired. We would not change it; a gentler version of this story would be a lesser one, but it is worth knowing that the experience is closer to an endurance test than a coming-of-age comedy.

Who should watch The Plague?

It is ideal for viewers who appreciate bold independent drama, psychological tension and films about childhood that refuse to be sentimental. Anyone who remembers the brutal social economy of school or camp will recognise its truth. It is rated R in the US; expect relentless bullying, crude language and body-horror imagery, and those themes may be triggering for viewers who experienced bullying. At 98 minutes, it is taut and focused.

For a companion piece:

• Whiplash, another intense film about young people pushed to breaking point in a competitive training environment, shot with a similar thriller-like tension.

The verdict

The Plague is an audacious, beautifully controlled debut that captures the anxieties of boyhood with the dread of a horror film and the precision of a great character study. Its unrelenting discomfort will not suit everyone, but it announces Charlie Polinger as a major new voice and ranks among the best films of its year.

Rating: 5/5