THE PLAGUE Review: Zero for Conduct Again

No matter how challenging the current life as an adult might be, it is still usually not as harrowing an experience as being a teen.

That’s the thought that is sure to pop up in many viewers’ minds upon watching Charlie Poling’s feature debut, The Plague. Having initially premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, the film is being marketed as a mix of a coming-of-age story, psychological thriller, and even a bit of body horror.

All three do exist in this succinct but effective movie, presenting a welcome departure from what a lot of genre films tend to do these days, when they set a clear drama narrative about trauma, loss, or grief among zombies, witchcraft, and the like (the latest notable example of this would be We Bury the Dead, which arrives in theaters next week). Poling, who also wrote the script, moves in the opposite direction by staying within the realm of the familiar physical world and mining his psychological horrors directly from it.

Confined spaces where children and teens are dumped for extended periods of time have proved to be a perfect setting for suspenseful stories ever since the king of Mexican genre films, Carlos Enrique Taboada, placed the story of his 1968 classic, Even the Wind Is Afraid, in an all-girls school. In the case of The Plague, such a space is a water polo summer camp where a newcomer arrives at the start of the film.

Ben (Everett Blunck) is a sensitive and slightly socially awkward boy who almost manages to fit in with his new crowd, led by charismatic Jake (Kayo Martin), but makes the mistake of being kind and even friendly to a known outcast, Eli (Kenny Rasmussen). The latter has a skin condition, which is rumored to be a symptom of the titular “plague”, turning the boy into a pariah. Ben soon finds himself facing the same fate, utterly alone in the teeth of bullying, despite the efforts of their sympathetic but largely clueless trainer (Joel Edgerton).

Some of the elements of Poling’s script might come off as too obvious and, therefore, simplifying. For instance, the story is set in 2003, a time when bullying was still significantly less talked about and largely ignored by both schools and parents. And the sport the boys participate in is as clear a metaphor as one can be – it’s an activity where a lot tends to happen underwater, including violence among the players, which then mostly gets brushed off by the judges since they can’t really see it.

At the same time, The Plague is a film that speaks more through its cinematic means than it does through narrative tools. Cinematography by Steven Breckon, especially when it comes to many water-heavy scenes, and the score by Johan Lenox, which helps to turn even seemingly innocuous moments into preludes to a nightmare, are definite standouts. As is the young cast: Everett Blunck demonstrates entirely different chops from his breakout role in Griffin in Summer, and Kayo Martin has an incredibly energetic presence both on and off screen.

And while The Plague might not have any groundbreakingly novel ideas on the painful subject, the ones it has are still relevant. The choice to almost completely exclude the grownups from the picture (once introduced in yet another of Taboada’s classics, Poison for the Fairies), leaving only one baffled and helpless adult, seems particularly telling.

Edgerton (who is one of the movie’s producers), per usual, is a delight playing a man who genuinely wants to do good, but cannot even begin to imagine how, beyond some lecturing and producing platitudes. His attempt at a pep talk, where he tries to reassure Ben of his future happiness, takes the awkwardness-filled cake even in comparison to a similar classic scene in Lukas Moodysson’s Show Me Love.

Turns out, we don’t necessarily get super happy with age, but watching even some of the relatively tame glimpses of teenage experience in Poling’s film, it’s easy to at least be content with the idea of never having to go through that again. 

The film opened Wednesday, December 24, only in select theaters, via IFC Films. Visit their official site for locations and showtimes.