Navigating adolescence is scary for many, but it becomes even more nerve-wracking in The Plague. Watch our exclusive clip below, where you’ll also find a new poster.
Set at an all-boys water polo camp, the film sees a socially anxious 12-year-old is pulled into a cruel tradition that targets an outcast with an illness they call “The Plague.” But as the lines between game and reality blur, he fears the joke might be hiding something real.
“This was, in a way, one of the more challenging scenes,” writer-director Charlie Polinger tells Bloody Disgusting. “There’s this sense that this is just a game that everyone’s doing that feels juvenile, even for them when they’re 12 and 13 — but on the other hand, it seems like you’re not allowed to question it, so there’s that kind of power play.”
To channel the “high anxiety, subjective immersion,” Polinger looked to a variety of psychological horror films, along with war movies and teen comedies.
“I was really into psychological horror,” says Polinger. “We were watching everything from Repulsion and Carrie and The Shining and Black Swan and Raw was a big one. Eighth Grade, which is not really horror, but it’s so stressful that I think it’s a great influence. Anything that had that psychological component, like a person who’s kind of spiraling out of control and losing their mind.”
Polinger continues, “Even something like Rosemary’s Baby, where the apartment’s changing sizes as she’s going through this psychological roller coaster ride. We were looking at a lot of that stuff, as well as some war films that explore the pressure cooker group dynamics.
“On the other side, we looked at stuff like Superbad and Mean Girls and these early 2000s high school comedies. Just thinking about how to fuse the naturalistic vibe of hanging out at that age at that time in history with the psychology of a very socially anxious protagonist that we’re inside of their head.”
After reviewing thousands of audition tapes, Polinger landed on Everett Blunck, Kayo Martin, and Kenny Rasmussen as the film’s young leads. The script also attracted Joel Edgerton (The Gift, Bright), who plays the boys’ coach and joined the project as a producer.
“It’s a very visceral, intense, psychological exploration of what it’s like to be 12 and what it’s like to try to belong in a group where you don’t feel like you totally belong there,” Polinger explains. “I think that it’s something that anyone can connect to.”
The Plague opens in New York and Los Angeles on December 24 before expanding nationwide on January 2 via Independent Film Company.
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