The Plague

A water polo camp doesn’t exactly scream horror, unless it’s filled with teenage boys with a mean streak. In The Plague, a withdrawn twelve-year-old named Ben arrives at camp only to discover a rigid hierarchy: cool kids on top, and a group of outcasts touched by a mysterious “plague” at the bottom. What should be a summer of sport turns into a cruel social experiment, testing the limits of loyalty, shame, and courage. For Ben, the experience becomes a battle not only with the group’s violence, but with his own rapidly changing body and emotions. In his feature debut, Charlie Polinger captures adolescence as a state of permanent unease. Like Julia Ducournau’s Raw, The Plague sees the body as a volatile site of transformation, but Polinger is more interested in boyhood anxiety, the neuroses of childhood, and the tension between vulnerability and aggression. Premiering in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, The Plague is a hormonal horror story where growing up is the ultimate nightmare.