The Plague is a 2025 psychological drama-thriller film[4][5][6] written and directed by Charlie Polinger in his directorial debut. It stars Everett Blunck, Kayo Martin, Kenny Rasmussen, and Joel Edgerton, who is also a producer on the film.
In 2003, middle schooler Ben is attending an all-boys water polo summer camp, led by coach "Daddy Wags," that includes a popular boy, Jake, his group of friends, and the eccentric misfit Eli. Anxious to fit in, Ben attempts to befriend the callous Jake, which includes willingly joining in with his friends' bullying and exclusion of Eli, who suffers from severe eczema, dubbed by the others as "the plague" and elevated to a mythical disease that affects mental and motor functions. Eli is ambivalent about his outsider status, and Ben, growing empathetic to his situation and guilty about his treatment, eventually connects with him in private after being annoyed by Jake's behavior.
Jake starts a rumor that Ben has contracted the plague from Eli, and the others begin to avoid and torment him, much to Ben's distress. Though he denies the accusation, he discovers that he also has a rash that begins to spread over his body. After being humiliated one night after a wet dream, he attempts to run away from the camp, but Daddy Wags convinces him to return with a lukewarm pep talk. The next day, Ben witnesses Daddy Wags reprimanding Jake in private; though he denies being involved when later confronted by Jake, the latter suspects the truth, and that night, he and the other boys fill Ben's bed with cockroaches and trap him inside as revenge. During a practice game, Ben plays aggressively against Jake, culminating in scratching him and drawing blood. In retaliation, a furious Jake punches him and attempts to drown him, leading to his expulsion from the program.
The summer camp hosts a co-ed dance, during which Eli dances alone with a cardboard cutout he'd found during an earlier outing. Upset that Eli still refuses to fit in, Ben breaks the cutout, leading an upset Eli to depart to repair it. Ben follows him to the locker room and berates him for his attitude and behavior, arguing that nobody will want to befriend him if he continues to be himself. A tearful and distraught Eli cuts off one of his fingers with a pair of scissors, and he leaves for the hospital with Daddy Wags. Covered in Eli's blood, Ben returns to the event, where he begins to dance in the same wild, uninhibited way as Eli earlier in the film, ignoring the stares of the others around him.
Initially, when Joel Edgerton received the script by Charlie Polinger, he wanted to direct the film; however, Polinger wanted to, with Edgerton instead offering to help get it made.[7] Polinger set out to "capture a social dread and vulnerability of your body and something you don't see as much with boys because it requires a certain vulnerability to be an object of terror in that way", and cites The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and Beau Travail as primary sources of inspiration.[8]
The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2025, in the Un Certain Regard section.[11] In August 2025, Independent Film Company acquired North American distribution rights to the film, giving it a theatrical release in the United States on December 24, 2025, before expanding nationwide on January 2, 2026.[12]
The film was met with critical acclaim and a warm reception at Cannes.[21][22] It received an eleven minute standing ovation and was described as "perhaps the hottest American film at the festival".[23]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 92 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Steeped in disquieting mood without ever treading water, The Plague takes common adolescent anxieties and elevates them into an unforgettable chiller."[24]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[25]
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