Adolescence, and particularly at an all-boys summer season water polo camp, is hell in Charlie Polinger’s memorably disturbing first characteristic, “The Plague.” Within the psychodrama-meets-body-horror film, Ben (discovery Everett Blunck), a socially anxious 12-year-old, turns into a part of a ritualistic custom that targets an outcast amongst them with an sickness they name “the plague.”
However as there are actual corporeal implications, it’s beginning to look as if this imagined social illness is perhaps actual. Is the plague on this acne-scarred nightmare an much more horrifying model of puberty? “The Plague” virtually appears like an allegory for it, nevertheless it’s by no means predictable. Under, IndieWire shares the unique trailer forward of the movie‘s upcoming debut on December 24.
Joel Edgerton additionally stars within the movie because the boys’ coach, who seems to be extraordinarily out of his depth when confronted with the cruelties they inflict upon one another. “The Plague” first premiered on the Cannes Movie Pageant, the place IndieWire spoke to author/director Polinger about taking pictures the movie on 35mm throughout a sweltering summer season season. “We had been capturing one thing that felt timeless and, to me, there’s no comparability. It seems so nice to shoot on movie, and these children’ faces and closeups simply rendered in such an exquisite manner,” he stated.
That shot-on-film facet lends to the movie feeling like a throwback to traditional coming-of-age films, however with a chilling twist. “I really like these films about boys, although I typically really feel like a number of films about younger boys are both a bit of extra kind of bro-y hangout or a bit of extra nostalgic, sort of biking-around-the-suburbs kind of factor,” he stated. Films like Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade” and Julia Ducournau’s “Uncooked,” he stated, “seize a social dread and vulnerability of your physique and one thing you don’t see as a lot with boys as a result of it requires a sure vulnerability to be an object of terror in that manner… I used to be even taking a look at some kind of dread-filled, ‘Shining’ daylight sorts of horror films, [with] big imposing areas.”
From IndieWire’s evaluate out of Cannes: “In his debut characteristic, filmmaker Charlie Polinger performs with broad riffs on coming-of-age, physique horror, and bullying genres earlier than paring these themes again to disclose that two 12-year-old boys — and their contrasting approaches to being completely different — are actually the heartfelt preoccupation of the movie.”
Unbiased Movie Firm opens “The Plague” in choose theaters on Wednesday, December 24 with an growth to observe on Friday, January 2.
