‘The Plague’ Review: Charlie Polinger’s Debut Takes Body Horror and ‘Lord of the Flies’ Into Extraordinary, Emotional Spaces

‘The Plague’ Review: Charlie Polinger’s Debut Takes Body Horror and ‘Lord of the Flies’ Into Extraordinary, Emotional Spaces

Cannes: Filmmaker Polinger plays with broad riffs on coming-of-age, body horror, and bullying genres to craft something with a potent power.

‘The Plague’ Review: Charlie Polinger’s Stylish, Bombastic Debut Feature With Joel Edgerton Has Little Emotion Under The Surface

While ostensibly adopting the perspective of a kind and sensitive 12-year-old boy going through the wringer at the hands of bullies, “The Plague” leaves a bitter, chlorine-y taste in the mouth. Set at a water polo camp, this competently realised debut feature from American director Charlie Polinger has its cake and eats it, gleefully aestheticizing the brutal violence and braggadocio cultivated in that environment. As alarming as that sounds, it…