Fantastic Fest 2025 Review:
"The Plague"
Release Date: Jan. 2, 2026 Rating: R Running Time: 98 minutes There are the bullies and there are the bullied. And, in Charlie Polinger’s directorial debut The Plague, there is no in-between. Ben (Everett Blunck) learns this the hard way within days of starting water polo camp. At lunch, the other campers immediately move away from Eli (Kenny Rasmussen) the moment he sits at their table. The primary instigator, Jake (Kayo Martin), tells Ben to avoid Eli because otherwise he will catch “the Plague” from Eli and lose his mental and physical functions. It does not matter that Eli is suffering from eczema—Jake and his followers use Eli’s skin condition against him because they don’t like that he’s a bit of an eccentric loner. Ben’s efforts to befriend Eli while staying on Jake’s good side quickly flounder when he crosses paths with Jake. The cruelty on display in The Plague is amplified when Jake turns on Ben, and it is made all the more intense by Johan Lenox’s bone-chilling score. Polinger refuses to take a Disney Channel-style approach to childhood bullying. (In fact, he takes a Bad News Bears approach to depicting the kids in the camp—they swear like sailors, they indulge in adolescent sexual fantasies, they treat adults and authority figures with contempt, just as most teen boys do in real life). There’s no sugarcoating Jake’s campaign of terror against Ben and Eli, which is conducted in a harsh and harrowing manner through weaponizing their bodies against them. Polinger is aware of how easy it can be for a bully to pinpoint and exploit their victims’ particular vulnerabilities. As Jake, Kayo Martin harnesses an unrefined form of psychological warfare to intimidating and hurtful effect. Yes, Jake is a bully who uses his charm and charisma to mask his own securities, but Martin never allows Jake to show any signs of weakness until the tables are turned on him. In contrast, Everett Blunck quickly finds Ben’s empathetic nature, even if his kindness toward Eli in done when others aren’t around. Ben falls into the herd mentality that Jake cultivates with ease and unspoken fear. And the sense of isolation Ben immediately feels when bullied is palpable. Stuck in the middle is Joel Edgerton swim coach “Daddy Wags.” He sees what’s going, and does what he can to stop the bullying when it gets out of hand. But Polinger depicts Wags as the obligatory adult authority figure whose words of warning easily fall on the deaf ears of a know-it-all teenage boy. As far as Polinger is concerned, sometimes the only way to stop a bully is to fight back. With The Plague, Polinger pushes both Ben and Eli to their limits, curious to see how they react. As far as Polinger’s concerned, this is a defining moment in their young lives, and how they handle a bully such as Jake may offer a glimpse to how they deal with conflict as adults. It’s a painful test of character, and Polinger challenges both Ben and Eli to remain to true to themselves despite the bullying or peer pressure they endure. But, sadly, it is test of character that many children must face on a daily basis. Aired: Sept. 27, 2025. Web site: https://www.theplaguemovie.com/ |
|