The Plague (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – At an all-boys water polo camp, a socially anxious twelve-year-old is pulled into a cruel tradition targeting an outcast with an illness they call ‘The Plague.’ But as the lines between game and reality blur, he fears the joke might be hiding something real.

My Take – I think we can all agree that adolescence, irrespective of gender or nationality, was no cake walk. A delicate age where we as eleven/twelve/thirteen-year-olds struggle to fit in an acceptable societal norm that gave us some attention and at the same time didn’t attract too much to stand out, as we figured out how to deal with our roiling hormones and burgeoning independence. And let’s not talk about that vivid, not-so-pleasant memories of catching a god forsaken nickname.

Drawing from his own summer camp experiences, for his jittery feature debut writer-director Charlie Polinger takes us to an all-boys’ water polo camp, in order to delve out a psychological nightmare where pubescent teens inflict cruel hazing rituals on their most sensitive teammates.

Produced by Joel Edgerton, who also stars in a supporting role, the film sees director Polinger use horror conventions to tap into potent, albeit familiar themes about toxic masculinity, like how they are dictated by arbitrary rules among young men, something which gives his project a depressing timeliness. Something like a mix of ‘Carrie‘ and ‘Lord of the Flies‘.

Sure, it is not as dark as Netflix’s popular miniseries ‘Adolescence’, and the narrative can at times become repetitive, yet, backed by Steven Breckon‘s cinematography, Damian Volpe‘s anxiety-inducing sound design and Johan Lenox‘s score, coupled with an appropriately icy visual palette built on grays and blue, we are left with a 95 minute long nail-biting experience. Indeed, this is an incredible debut that is both beautifully made and terrifying to watch, and deserves every bit of acclaim it has earned so far.

Set in the summer of 2003, the story follows 12-year-old Ben (Everett Blunck), who has just moved from Boston to an unspecified US city with his mum, and joined a water polo camp under the coaching of Daddy Wags (Joel Edgerton), where he meets some of the veteran campers including cocky leader Jake (Kayo Martin).

Finding himself on the edge of manhood and in a moral crisis as he tries to fit in with other campers, Ben learns that the team picks on Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), a quiet, awkward kid they believe has been stricken with an awful affliction what they call the “plague,” a leprosy-like red rash that is supposedly contagious. Though, Eli does have a rash, but his teammates’ vindictive mockery seems absurd to Ben, who decides to befriend this outcast, only to see his doubts spelled out in front of his eyes.

The rest of the film sees how Ben tries to reconcile social acceptance with his own moral code. He understands that people shouldn’t be exiled for their differences and yet the idea of losing his place within the hierarchy keeps him up at night.

To keep things appropriately terrifying director Polinger also deploys jump scares, intimate close-ups and elements of body horror to recast these coming-of-age dilemmas as high-stakes, nightmarish challenges. The presence of a girls’ swimming camp at the same facility adds even more to the hormonal surge these boys contend with, and he uses that simmering tension to significant effect. Not to forget those synchronized dancing scenes in the pool that add a layer of eeriness to the proceedings.

But the film works best at its most enigmatic, leaving the viewers uncertain about this so-called ‘Plague’. Early on, Jake tells Ben a cautionary tale about how Eli supposedly got it from a former camper who was eventually sent to a mental institution because of the disease, a story that sounds preposterous.

But it offers just enough plausible moments of unease that, while we never fully accept the team’s theories about this affliction, we understand how it becomes such a powerful fear, not to mention a deft metaphor for the dread most adolescents have about being shunned by their contemporaries.

The more time the compassionate Ben spends with proudly peculiar Eli, the more valid the ‘Plague’ becomes, reconnecting us with the feverish irrationality of that emotionally charged time of life. But while the ‘Plague’ often overdoes its frenzied air of paranoia and fear, and its final sequences push for dramatic crescendos that don’t feel entirely earned, director Polinger does extract strong work from his young cast.

Everett Blunck is excellent as a decent young man who finds himself losing his moral compass once he panics that his teammates will be turning against him. Kayo Martin makes for a convincing villain in the normalcy of his portrayal as Jake. We all went to school with a kid like Jake, and Martin conveys an eerily subtle menace. Kenny Rasmussen believably portrays an outsider whose quirkiness could be an act or, perhaps, a sign of more profound issues.

Joel Edgerton is likable, as the only adult in the cast with a role of any significance. He is particularly a highlight when he arguably provides the least-inspiring pep talk in cinema history. On the whole, ‘The Plague‘ is a timely hazing drama that delivers an unsettling mixture of coming-of-age drama and psychological horror.