The Plague Review

Charlie Polinger's Debut Fully Recaptures the Horror of Being An Adolescent

By: Marc Kozak

The Plague

Charlie Polinger's Debut Fully Recaptures the Horror of Being An Adolescent

By: Marc Kozak

I think most people would agree that if you look back on your childhood with fondness, you’re one of the lucky ones. For most of us, those formative younger years were spent in an awkward state of crippling uncertainty, with bodies ruled by tyrannical hormones and nerves constantly shattered due to the mistaken belief that every single social interaction was the difference between life and death. And that was before the advent of social media — anyone 35 years or older has 100 percent uttered the phrase “I’m so happy I’m not a kid right now” on a weekly basis at minimum.

Charlie Polinger’s debut, The Plague, perhaps cruelly aims to immerse the audience in that terrible feeling of being 12 or 13 years old, all while using the visual style, spooky soundtrack, and gross-out gore of a horror movie. Polinger isn’t the first (and certainly won’t be the last) to make the comparison between adolescence and a horror movie, but it’s not hard to see the appeal of the idea — it’s the perfect mode for capturing the visceral terror and high-stakes social dynamics of youth.

The opening shot immediately sets the tone, as the camera lurks underwater while a group of young boys jump almost soundlessly into a swimming pool, limbs flailing wildly, bodies slowly approaching the camera while Johan Lenox’s unsettling score of strange, almost inhuman voices begins to warn the viewer that terrible things are about to happen. Steven Breckon’s camera shoots the doors and hallways of a school building like they’re rooms from The Shining, complete with slow zooms and heavy shadows, seeming to suggest some kind of evil hiding in the very walls.

" 'The Plague' is a simple but effective look at the natural horrors of childhood, namely puberty and the uncontrollable desire to fit in.  "

From there, things fall into a fairly standard summer camp/coming-of-age narrative. Twelve-year-old Ben (Everett Blunck) is the sensitive new kid at an all-boys water polo camp, eager to make friends with what he sees as the cool group, led by the perpetually smirking Jake (Kayo Martin). The boys are friendly enough to Ben at first, but quickly jump on a small speech impediment, earning Ben the nickname “Soppy.” Oddly enough, this seems to serve as Ben’s initiation to the group, and he’s quickly part of the circle of friends that pulls pranks, plays raunchy games of “Would You Rather,” and sneaks out of the dorms at night to smash stuff in abandoned buildings.

As Ben is learning the social rules of the group, he runs into the cruel routine that gets played out any time they are around Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), a chubbier kid that wears a shirt at all times to hide his eczema and acne. Jake has decided that Eli’s skin condition is “the plague,” and anyone that touches him will catch it and slowly go insane, so the kids scream and run away in mock horror every time Eli is near. Ben is intrigued by Eli, who seems to be unaffected by the teasing and contentedly lives in his own world of dancing and magic tricks. Ben cautiously befriends Eli but makes sure that the rest of the group doesn’t see it, wary of being ostracized by the more popular group.

You can see where things are going from there, as it’s the plot of many a ‘90s sitcom — the group finds out that Ben likes Eli, and he becomes the new social outcast, even as he desperately downplays the connection despite learning that Eli is deeply affected by the abuse. Ben starts to imagine that he is covered in rashes, obsessively scratching over bleeding wounds and popping huge pimples in a few particularly gnarly sequences. He is quickly spiraling, and the only adult in camp (Joel Edgerton as the boys’ coach) is kind but profoundly unprepared for any kind of conversation revolving around emotions. Things eventually lead to a violent showdown between Ben and Jake, which culminates in a true horror-movie style ending that feels a bit too familiar and unsatisfying in how it resolves Ben’s arc.

Thematically, the movie is covering well-trod ground, working with the same level of moral instruction as an after-school special. It can feel a bit didactic at times, particularly in the scenes with Edgerton’s character, whose almost-comical level of ineffectualness is certainly believable but still clearly designed to hammer home what little messaging the movie holds. The movie works much better as an emotionally affecting example of the world that young boys must navigate, similar to Bo Burnham’s much more fun Eighth Grade (2018). Polinger is wildly successful in transporting us back in time and reproducing that uneasy feeling of being 13 years old, even without the horror elements, which become a bit cumbersome by the halfway point. The successful evocation of that feeling is the movie’s greatest strength, and an impressive feat for a debut filmmaker.

The movie is also bolstered by a few truly fantastic child acting performances, particularly Kayo Martin as the bully Jake. Martin’s squint-eyed gaze seems to penetrate directly into the deepest secrets of anyone he focuses his attention on (kids and adults alike), always accompanied by a mischievous smirk that suggests he knows what you’re all about and finds it funny. Everett Blunck is also impressive as the good-natured but conflicted Ben, who can’t escape the idea that nothing is more important than being liked. Blunck is asked to carry the movie mostly on his shoulders, a tough thing to do even for adult actors, but he does so with ease, convincingly selling us on his increasing inner torment and spiraling anxieties.

Set in 2003, perhaps wisely avoiding the additional complications of social media, The Plague is a simple but effective look at the natural horrors of childhood, namely puberty and the uncontrollable desire to fit in. Being young can feel a lot like getting thrown in a deep pool with a bunch of wild animals and left to see if you can swim to the relative safer shores of adulthood. If you’re brave enough to relive that journey all over again, The Plague will certainly make you feel like you’re right back in those familiar waters.