Cannes 2025: Impressive Thriller ‘The Plague’ from Charlie Polinger

by Alex Billington
May 24, 2025

A fresh new debut from a filmmaker who has real talent. One of the best first films at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival is titled The Plague, an American indie thriller made by filmmaker Charlie Polinger. During the intro at its world premiere, actor Joel Edgerton (who also runs his own production company called Blue-Tongue Films – though they’re not involved in this film) stated that he’d already seen few of Polinger’s short films before reading the script for this & couldn’t wait for him to finally make his mark with his first feature. That moment is here and, yes, he has definitely made his mark. Even after watching many other films over the course of the festival, this one still stands out, it still lingers in my mind and the score still haunts me. Even if the story about bullying is a bit obvious, and even if it never dips into any full-on horror despite the feeling often that it might do so, it is still an impressive debut with top notch filmmaking across the board. The Plague plunges viewers into the chilling realm of kids picking on other kids and it’s proper freaky stuff.

Written & directed by Charlie Polinger, The Plague is set in the early 2000s and tells the story of a group of kids at a water polo summer camp. I know these sports camps as I went to a few when I was growing up & they were always awkward experiences for me, too. A bunch of feisty, young, bored kids thrown together for a week (without any parents). Newcomer Everett Blunck stars as a scrawny kid named Ben, who tries to gain the camaraderie of the other group of kids that already know each other. Kenny Rasmussen co-stars as Eli, a weird boy who has some skin problems that appear as rashes on his body. The other kids think this is some scary disease they dub “The Plague” and act as if it’s horrible, always making fun of him, constantly picking on him, not going near him. But Eli doesn’t seem to care and just does whatever he wants to do his own way, even if they keep bullying him. Kayo Martin also co-stars as Jake, the bullying ringleader who is always the one finding something to pick on with any kid. The performances from Everett Blunck and Kayo Martin are some of the best young performances I’ve seen in quite a while. They’re not only convincing but also challenging, diving into a disquieting dynamic that is necessary for this story to work as well as it does.

Aside from the kids being legit in their roles (and Joel Edgerton as their coach), this is proper filmmaking firing on all cylinders. There’s some incredibly unique cinematography by DP Steven Breckon, framing the pool and the buildings and every shot in a way that is instantly peculiar or unsettling yet also entrancing. This guy has an eye, that’s for sure, and I’m glad he teamed up with Polinger. The score rules – it’s a stirring horror score built around “aaah” and “oooh” vocals sampled into percussive music. The singer / composer Johan Lenox is the inventive musician behind this score and he deserves extra attention for creating this especially freaky score. Still thinking about it all the time… It’s part of what makes this movie so chilling to watch, keeping viewers on the edge of their seat even if it’s not actually horror. Ultimately the story is less about bullying and more about being yourself, not letting any peer pressure or conformity get to you. Not an easy task, especially when you’re a kid growing up who wants to be seen as cool and accepted in the group. It’s a helluva good film that’s entirely original and gripping – Polinger instantly proving he’s got the chops.

Alex’s Cannes 2025 Rating: 8 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

Find more posts in: Cannes 25, Review