The Plague (2025) by Charlie Polinger- A Cruel Summer at the Edge of Boyhood

Short Summary – When Hazing Becomes Horror

Catchy Title: The Summer Where Jokes Turn DeadlyAt an all-boys water polo camp in 2003, awkward twelve-year-old Ben craves acceptance. When he’s drawn into a cruel game targeting outcast Eli—labeled as bearing a contagious “plague”—Ben’s loyalty and innocence begin to fracture. A tense psychological drama uncomfortably blurs the line between cruel pranks and tragic consequences.

Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32792934/

Link Review: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-plague-review-joel-edgerton-1236215166/

Release Date on Streaming – Theatricals First, Digital Later

The film is slated for a limited U.S. theatrical release on December 24, 2025, expanding January 2, 2026. Digital release info is expected closer to that date.

Detailed Summary – Camp, Cruelty, and Collapse

• Innocence in toxic waters: Ben arrives hopeful and socially awkward, desperate to find a place among the confident, roughhousing older boys. The camp’s tightly knit cliques operate on strict unspoken rules of dominance, with humor often acting as a mask for hostility. The “plague” game begins as a lighthearted tag-like activity but quickly exposes the group’s willingness to turn on one of their own for entertainment.

• Scapegoating spirals: Eli, quiet and already on the fringes, becomes the designated scapegoat. Teasing escalates to relentless hazing—verbal humiliation, exclusion from meals, and aggressive pranks—turning the camp into a microcosm of social survival. Ben’s empathy for Eli is palpable, but so is his fear of being next.

• Blurred reality: As the days stretch on, the camp’s sunlit lakes and echoing pool halls feel increasingly sinister. Polinger uses claustrophobic dorm shots and distorted underwater visuals to blur the lines between Ben’s perception and reality. What was a “game” begins to manifest in Ben’s mind as a creeping, contagious presence.

• Masculinity exposed: In moments between matches and pranks, we see the boys mimicking the competitive, hierarchical behaviors of their coaches and fathers. Here, masculinity is performed through control, intimidation, and the suppression of vulnerability.

Director’s Vision – Born from Memory, Crafted with Precision

• Charlie Polinger based the film partly on his own camp journals from 2003, lending authenticity to the dialogue and group dynamics.

• His approach blends scripted structure with moments of improvisation, giving the young actors agency to bring truth to their performances.

• The goal, according to Polinger, was to portray the “pressure cooker” of adolescent groupthink—how the desire to belong can corrode empathy in real time.

• The aesthetic choices—lingering handheld shots, long silences, muffled underwater audio—serve to immerse the audience in Ben’s internal struggle, rather than simply observe it from afar.

Themes – Bullying, Belonging, and the Horror of Conformity

• Cruel acceptance: The film lays bare the way marginalized cruelty becomes a gateway to social integration in tight-knit adolescent groups.

• Performance of masculinity: Through small acts—mocking accents, flexing during warm-ups, boasting about imagined conquests—the boys rehearse a version of manhood steeped in dominance.

• Psychological contagion: The “plague” operates as both metaphor and mechanism—a fear-driven label that isolates, shames, and ultimately infects everyone’s behavior.

• Loss of moral compass: In the scramble to avoid isolation, Ben gradually compromises his empathy, illustrating the cost of silence in oppressive social systems.

Key Success Factors – Drowning in Tension, Anchored by Performance

• Everett Blunck’s layered lead: As Ben, Blunck captures the conflicting impulses of a boy teetering between kindness and cowardice. His performance is restrained, relying on glances, hesitations, and physical unease.

• Kayo Martin’s charismatic menace: As the camp’s dominant figure, Martin channels a magnetic cruelty—never outright monstrous, but calculated and intoxicating to those who want his approval.

• Technical immersion: The underwater cinematography mirrors Ben’s suffocating anxiety, while an unsettling sound design amplifies the smallest ripples, splashes, and whispers, making even playful moments feel threatening.

• Period authenticity: Set in the pre-smartphone era, the absence of digital escape emphasizes the claustrophobia of camp life and the inescapability of peer judgment.

Awards & Nominations – Cannes Standing Ovation, Waiting for Its Gold

Premiering in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes on May 16, 2025, The Plague earned an 11-minute standing ovation—a testament to its emotional resonance and craft. It received nominations for both Un Certain Regard and the Camera d’Or, marking Polinger’s debut as one of the year’s most closely watched. Though awards season lies ahead, the film has already positioned itself as a strong contender for Best First Feature recognition.

Critics Reception – A Haunting Debut with Bite

• Elle (Tomris Laffly): Called it “a terrific debut,” praising how Polinger marries the tension of a psychological thriller with the intimate discomfort of a coming-of-age drama.

• Variety (Jessica Kiang): Noted it’s a familiar summer camp story recharged with “stranger, subtler undercurrents” that destabilize the viewer.

• Next Best Picture (David Cuevas): Applauded the “precise, immersive direction” and the way the film weaponizes subtle horror to reflect adolescent cruelty.

Overall: Critics agree that The Plague succeeds through its blend of naturalistic performances, carefully controlled atmosphere, and its unflinching depiction of toxic group dynamics.

Reviews – Collective Shock and Recognition

• Letterboxd (Charli XCX): Reacted viscerally—“Reeling… sound design on point… total f***ing chaos”—highlighting the film’s immersive sensory impact.

• Sydney Film Festival: Marketed as a “horror-tinged thriller about conformity,” noting the story’s unique balance of realism and genre tension.

• Audience word-of-mouth: Many praise its emotional authenticity, with several comparing it to Lord of the Flies for the TikTok generation—though more grounded and claustrophobic.

Overall Summary: The response frames The Plague as both disturbing and empathetic, pushing audiences to recall their own adolescent moral crossroads.

Theatrical Release – From Cannes Heat to Winter Screens

• Cannes premiere: May 16, 2025 (Un Certain Regard).

• Sydney Film Festival screening: June 2025, continuing its festival circuit momentum.

• North American release: Opens December 24, 2025 in select cities, expanding January 2, 2026.

Why to Recommend Movie – When Childhood Becomes War Zone

• Raw vulnerability: Captures the emotional disorientation of adolescence in a closed, high-pressure environment.

• Performance over spectacle: Relies on acting, sound, and framing to build dread rather than graphic violence.

• Uncomfortable honesty: Forces reflection on the ways we’ve all navigated peer pressure and the bystander’s guilt.

• Debut with staying power: Establishes Polinger as a filmmaker unafraid to mine the darkness of youth for unsettling truths.

Movie Trend – Horror-Inflected Coming of Age

Part of a recent wave (Aftersun, The Innocents, It Follows) that intertwines genre elements with emotionally authentic youth narratives, using dread not for jump scares but to illuminate inner conflict.

Social Trend – Exposing Toxic Masculinity’s Roots

Resonates with ongoing cultural examinations of how gender roles, peer pressure, and bullying take shape in early adolescence—suggesting that harmful behaviors are often learned, tolerated, and embedded in formative spaces like sports and camps.

Final Verdict – A Cold Shock of Childhood’s Cruelty

The Plague is a meticulously crafted debut that refuses to romanticize youth. By fusing the intimacy of memory with the sharp edge of horror, Charlie Polinger delivers a film that’s as tense as it is tender—a chilling reminder of how fragile morality can be when survival is on the line.