‘The Plague' Review: Joel Edgerton & Cast Of Young Newcomers Turn Summer Boys Camp Into A Psychological Nightmare
The Plague, a world premiere today in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, may be fiction, but it brought back vivid, not-so-pleasant memories of my days in elementary school and at the Catalina Island Boys Camp, where every 12-year-old in my cabin nicknamed the kid we labeled a chronic liar and outcast as Skag. We didn't believe this extremely awkward kid about anything including that his father had won four Oscars, as he kept bragging, but the fact is after I got home I discovered it was true. If only we had cell phones and IMDb in those days, Skag might not have become the target of our obsessive bullying.
And then in the fifth grade, my entire class zeroed in on one poor girl named Karen who we nicknamed Ledbutt. We all secretly even cut her photo out of our copy of the class photo, something I still have to this day to remind me childhood can be terribly cruel. I too was singled out. It happens.
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Set at an all-boys water polo summer camp, The Plague is on the precipice of horror, but this is no Friday the 13th. Bullying and targeting are their own brand of horror, so I would call this film more of a frightening psychological drama centering on the 12-year-olds aiming for acceptance and conformity at the expense of one lone outcast. It came from writer-director Charlie Polinger's own summer camp experiences, even though the characters here are all made up. It is far less intense horror than Carrie and more along the lines of a Lord of the Flies, the book turned twice into a movie and one every schoolboy read before The Lord of the Rings took over.
Set in 2003, 12-year-old Ben (Everett Blunck) finds himself on the edge of manhood and in a moral crisis as he tries to fit in with other campers but has some guilt about partaking in what they call the 'plague,' a fictional malady they collectively decide to create for one unsuspecting camper whom they claim has been stricken with this awful affliction. If you should even touch him, you will get the plague. Chubby and socially inept Eli (Kenny Rasmussen) is the object of this disaffection because he has severe acne on his face and back — and also because, well, he is kinda weird, not at all like the 'normal' kids including bully-in-chief, Jake (Kayo Martin), the pathetic terrorizing ringleader of this bad behavior. Ben increasingly is troubled but also wants to be one of the group, and his doubts are spelled out in his eyes.
Trying to keep order is Daddy Wags, the camp counselor nicely played in a supporting role by Joel Edgerton, who also is a producer. But he can only do so much, and you know boys will be monsters given half the chance. In the Trump era, now it is worse since we have sort of license for this type of behavior considering the influencers from the White House on down. The Plague looks like it inevitably is going to fall down the rabbit hole of standard horror tropes at any moment, but this movie is smarter than that and always keeps it credible, tough as it is to watch.
Casting director Rebecca Dealy's cast largely is made up of first-time film actors who are 12 or 13 themselves. Notably this is an exceptional debut for Rasmussen and Martin, neither having ever made a film but completely natural here, as is Blunck, who is haunting as Ben. Polinger knows just how to get an authentic performance out of each of these kids, plus he has added some almost surreal visual touches such as synchronized dancing scenes in the pool that add a layer of eerieness to the proceedings.
Producers in addition to Edgerton are Lizzie Shapiro, Lucy McKendrick, Steven Schneider, Roy Lee and Derek Dauchy.
Title: The PlagueFestival: Cannes (Un Certain Regard)Sales agents: UTA/Cinetic (domestic) , AGC (international)Director-screenwriter: Charlie PolingerCast: Everett Blonck, Kenny Rasmussen, Kayo Martin, Joel Edgerton, Lucas Adler, Caden Burris, Elliott Heffernan, Nicolas, Rasovan, Lennox Espy, Kolton LeeRunning time: 1 hr 39 min
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