I had heard a lot of positive things about the film, The Plague earlier in the year, but it never came around to the theaters in my area. So when I spotted it on AMC + on Prime, I decided to give this a watch.

The film is a psychological thriller/horror film directed by Charlie Polinger and starring Joel Edgerton and a cast of teenagers.

I think the theme of this movie is that middle school aged boys are horrible, cruel and just disgusting people.

According to IMDB, “A socially awkward tween endures the ruthless hierarchy at a water polo camp, his anxiety spiraling into psychological turmoil over the summer.”

This was not what I expected this film to be about. It was a rough watch, especially since I am a middle school teacher and seeing how cruel these kids were to each other, it is something I can relate to in my own life.

There were some questions I had, but I think those all require spoilers, so I will just have to say that I am not sure what I saw was really what I saw during a chunk of the movie.

The main protagonist of the film was Ben, played by Everett Blunck. The young teen Blunck does a really good job dealing with the pressures of trying to fit in with the crowd, while still feeling empathy for those that were being ostracized. It was a strong performance with plenty of layers for this young boy to play. The main antagonist for Ben was Jake, played by Kayo Martin. I swear that every time I saw Kayo Martin, I pictured Justin Shenkarow from Picket Fences. Kayo Martin could easily be his brother, though Shenkarow is much older now. I really disliked the character of Jake, so Kayo Martin did an excellent job of providing the conflict within this group of children. He felt real.

The film is a slow build and does feel longer than its 1:38 run time. Still, the performances are all great and the tension is top notch. There are things that are happening that I am confused by, which kept me on my toes. Maybe I was looking too deeply into it (the Wikipedia page did not make any references to my concepts), but I was glad it was a film I finally was able to see.

4 stars