The Purge was one of 2013's biggest surprise movie successes. While it didn't draw the box office numbers of The Avengers, it did recoup its budget many times over. Unsurprisingly a sequel, The Purge: Anarchy is releasing this month and due to that, I decided to give the The Purge a try to see what they hype was about. In The Purge, the crime and unemployment rates in the United States have plummeted in a seemingly perfect society, however once a year for 12 hours all crime is legal and all emergency response is suspended. People are allowed to take out their violence, anger, and hate on whoever they want during this period and suffer no legal consequences. In the film it is explained to be a release and a way to cleanse themselves of their sins however in actually is cleansing society of the sick, weak, and poor.
In an affluent Los Angeles suburb a security systems salesman played by Ethan Hawke and his family must survive an assault by crazed bands of 1%ers. Hawke works as a security consultant who both approves of the Purge and profited greatly off of it as advent of the Purge brought about the increased demand for advanced security systems. When the couple's son lets in a shady homeless man in their fortified home during the opening hours of the Purge, they attract rather unwelcome attention from their Purging neighbors. The family is given an ultimatum of either hand over the man to a certain death to the massing mob or die themselves.
I found that The Purge was a decent film, but displayed many annoying quirks that many modern movies have such as the tech savvy son and the teenage daughter with little sense of self preservation. To its credit, the film remains grounded in its reality and minimizes the use of tricks such as jump scares. The credits were somehow more effective in portraying the horror of this reality than the movie employing standard evening news style delivers. While there was social commentary about the struggle between the haves and have nots and class warfare it was not overwhelmingly oppressive. Ultimately for being a more serious version of Home Alone, I found the concept intriguing to motivate me to see the sequel.
I found that The Purge was a decent film, but displayed many annoying quirks that many modern movies have such as the tech savvy son and the teenage daughter with little sense of self preservation. To its credit, the film remains grounded in its reality and minimizes the use of tricks such as jump scares. The credits were somehow more effective in portraying the horror of this reality than the movie employing standard evening news style delivers. While there was social commentary about the struggle between the haves and have nots and class warfare it was not overwhelmingly oppressive. Ultimately for being a more serious version of Home Alone, I found the concept intriguing to motivate me to see the sequel.
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