Joel Edgerton Faces The Horrors Of Adolescence In The Plague
Nothing is more terrifying than puberty, except maybe whatever is going on in the trailer for The Plague. This new psychological thriller is ready to make audiences deeply uncomfortable in the best possible way when it opens in New York and Los Angeles on December 24, before spreading nationwide on January 2 through Independent Film Company. Yes, you can ring in the new year by reliving the worst years of middle school, only sweatier and with more psychological trauma.
Set at an all boys water polo camp, the story follows a socially anxious 12 year old who gets dragged into a cruel ritual targeting another camper with a mysterious condition they call “The Plague.” What starts as a childish joke spirals into something much darker as reality begins to melt away, and the fear of infection becomes the least of anyone’s worries. It is Lord of the Flies with swim trunks and chlorine burns.
The film stars Joel Edgerton, who seems determined to prove that he can find menace in absolutely anything, from home invasions (The Gift) to biblical floods (Exodus). This time he joins a cast of promising newcomers — Everett Blunck, Kayo Martin, and Kenny Rasmussen — to navigate a story where the monsters are not supernatural, they are hormonal.
Writer and director Charlie Polinger makes his feature debut here, and he is already drawing attention for tackling male adolescence as a breeding ground for horror rather than nostalgia. “I was inspired by genre films like Carrie, Raw, Black Swan, and Eighth Grade,” Polinger said. “Stories that explore the social terror of vulnerability, transformation, and the body. But I realized these narratives almost always center around young women. When it comes to boys, films either lean bro-y or nostalgic, rarely allowing them to be the subject of horror. Because true horror demands vulnerability, and traditional masculinity doesn’t make space for that.”
That quote alone could earn him a TED Talk, but the trailer shows he is backing it up with style. Think sweaty locker rooms, foggy pools, and sun drenched tension that feels more like a fever dream than summer camp. The film was shot entirely on 35mm, giving it a tactile, gritty texture that makes every bead of sweat and splash of water look uncomfortably real.
Behind the scenes, The Plague has serious genre pedigree. Edgerton not only stars but also produces, joining forces with Steven Schneider (Insidious, Paranormal Activity), Roy Lee (IT, Weapons), Lizzie Shapiro (Shiva Baby), Lucy McKendrick, and Derek Dauchy (Late Night with the Devil). If that line up does not make horror fans perk up, nothing will.
The film premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, where it reportedly earned an 11 minute standing ovation — which is either a sign of artistic triumph or a desperate audience afraid to stop clapping. Early buzz calls it “unflinchingly intimate,” “visceral,” and “the scariest swim meet in history.”
If Polinger’s goal was to make a film that combines the social cruelty of adolescence with the queasy body horror of coming of age, it looks like he succeeded. The Plague promises to be that rare blend of arthouse anxiety and genre terror — the kind of movie where you leave the theater both emotionally devastated and slightly afraid to touch a locker room bench again.
So this holiday season, when everyone else is watching cheerful films about family and forgiveness, horror fans can head to the cinema to watch a group of twelve year olds unravel under peer pressure and paranoia. Merry Christmas indeed. For more on The Plague, keep coming back to Stalk & Slash as the film closes in on release.
