Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | Film | February 16, 2026
I went into The Plague knowing almost nothing beyond the fact that it had good reviews. Based on the title alone, I assumed it was an indie horror flick. And it kind of is, inasmuch as being middle-school aged in America is its own horror story. It’s billed as a psychological drama thriller, although I’d probably categorize it more as a coming-of-age psychological mindf**k from writer-director Charlie Polinger, making his feature debut.
It follows a gawky 12-year-old named Ben (Everett Blunck), who attends a water polo camp as a socially anxious kid desperately trying to find his place in the camp’s social hierarchy. Fitting in, however, means joining a group of bullies led by Jake (Kayo Martin) in tormenting another painfully awkward kid named Eli (Kenny Rasmussen). Eli suffers from severe eczema or some kind of awful skin rash, which the boys cruelly dub “The Plague.” They start a rumor that Eli is contagious, that the rash is deadly, and that anyone who touches him without immediately scrubbing themselves clean will be infected.
At first, Ben goes along with it because he wants to belong and, in part, because he isn’t entirely convinced The Plague isn’t real. But he has a soft spot for Eli, and when he finds him alone in the locker room struggling to rub medicated cream onto the rash on his back, Ben helps. The other boys discover this act of kindness, and Ben is promptly ostracized, bullied, humiliated, and even tortured. The psychological torment deepens when Ben develops a rash of his own. Is he infected with The Plague? Or is it just a reaction to spending all day in chlorinated water?
Either way, Ben is left to endure the cruelty of other 12-year-olds, and not even the well-meaning but bumbling water polo coach (Joel Edgerton) can offer much comfort, beyond assuring him that things will get better when he’s older. Which, of course, is the last thing a middle-schooler wants to hear. A decade or two is an eternity when you’re 12.
The Plague occasionally feels like a 90-minute short, but it’s sharply written and confidently directed by Polinger, and both Blunck and Rasmussen are excellent. Rasmussen, in particular, is perfectly cast as the weird kid: caught in that uncanny in-between stage, still carrying a layer of adolescent baby fat while sporting a creepy, post-pubescent voice. But Eli, at least, knows who he is. As socially isolated as he may be, he’s oddly comfortable in his own rashy skin. The real question is whether Ben can learn to embrace his awkwardness, or whether he’ll spend the rest of camp (and middle school) trying to ingratiate himself with popular monsters who are all too eager to sacrifice the weak to feel strong.
It’s a good, deeply uncomfortable movie, and one that’s likely to linger long after it ends. It also announces Polinger as a filmmaker to watch, which helps explain why he’s already been tapped to adapt and direct Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, starring Mikey Madison and Franz Rogowski.
‘The Plague’ is available on all the usual digital outlets.
