A directorial and writing debut every bit as potent as Eva Victor’s “Sorry, Baby,” writer/director Charlie Polinger’s “The Plague” (IFC) is also just as hard to shake. Which makes it required viewing.
Adolescent Ben (Everett Blunck, who was recently seen in the queer film “Griffin In Summer”) is the new kid in town. Relocating from Boston after his mother had an affair and his parents divorced, Ben is enrolled in the second session of water polo camp, on a college campus, in summer 2003.
The coach, Wags (Joel Edgerton, on the comeback trail with this movie and “Train Dreams”), has his work cut out for him with this rambunctious group of 12 and 13-year-old boys. Because most of the adolescents are “vets” from the first session, Wags tries to make socially anxious Ben feel welcome.
It doesn’t take long to discover who the ringleader is. Jake (Kayo Martin), on whom Regina George of “Mean Girls” had nothing, is cruelty personified. For the first half of “The Plague,” his target is nerdy and socially awkward Eli (Kenny Rasmussen). Eli, who suffers from what looks to be plaque psoriasis, never takes his shirt off in the pool. When he’s not being ignored, he’s treated like a pariah in the cafeteria. Led by Jake, the other boys jump up from their seats at the table whenever Eli approaches with his tray. Jake has labeled Eli’s physical difference, The Plague, and created a mythology around it.
For a while, Ben succeeds in fitting in with the others. As naïve as he is desperate to connect with the others, Ben takes what Jake says as gospel, and follows his, and the other boys’ leads. When Ben accidentally bumps into Eli, in an especially chaotic scene when the boys sneak out of the dorm and do some damage in a nearby desolate neighborhood, he rushes over to a burst pipe and begins to scrub his skin. This is done to the delight of Jake and the others.
After Ben makes the mistake of helping Eli apply medicinal ointment to a hard-to-reach area, something witnessed by Jake, his world collapses in unimaginable ways. Suddenly, he is also said to have The Plague. He is shunned in the pool, the showers, and the cafeteria. He is alternately ridiculed and ignored. Making matters worse, he begins to show signs of an outbreak similar to Eli’s.
“The Plague,” which pulses with tension, raises the question, when is a horror movie not a horror movie? The visuals, including many of the underwater shots, are breathtaking. There is also an effective use of original music in the score by Johan Lenox. By the stunning conclusion, you may find yourself gasping for air after a dive into the deep end, with the revelation that the plague may well be 12-to-13-year-old boys.
Rating: A-
