The Purge (2013) Directed by James DeMonaco. Starring: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder. IMDB says: “A family is held hostage for harboring the target of a murderous syndicate during the Purge, a 12-hour period in which any and all crime is legalized.”
Taking note from old school zombie films, The Purge attempts to inject a dose of social commentary into it’s central narrative. Part horror film, part dare I say sci-fi, the film takes place in an alternative version of the United States where crime, poverty and unemployment are all sitting at record lows. The country is running at a suspicious rate of near perfection. The cause? One night every year where for a full 12-hours, the government renders all crime (including murder!) legal. This is known as ….the Purge (are you paying attention?) and is said to help citizens deal will their aggression. Sounds like a great theory and it’s totally working so like, it must be accurate right? Well sure, except most people think it might only be working because the poor can not afford to keep themselves safe during the event thus becoming easy targets for the evildoers.
What we’re working with here is the film’s biggest plus. It’s a premise, that while radical and somewhat implausible, is still intriguing enough at it’s core to bring about a stir in its audience. The obvious parallels between our current measures of society and what we choose to accept or repeal are great foundations for a horror film. The movie brings us these ideas in a strong and capable manner in the beginning; we see how routinely everyone seems to deal with the Purge night, there doesn’t seem to be anything more than your average neighborly problems in the upper class Suburban community we are introduced to and there is just the right level of menace brewing under the surface of the characters. The direction is also really tight utilizing the confined space of the house to it’s full advantage. The acting ranges from serviceable to above so with the better work coming from (not surprisingly) Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey. Then it’s time for lock down. Only a short time into Purge night and the young son of the family Charlie (Max Burkholder) spots a man in need of help on security cameras aimed right outside their house. As anyone who has seen the trailer already knows, Charlie decides to help a brother out and offers safe housing to the man in danger. This is when all hell breaks loose for the family and the horror movie cliches start to fly.
It’s one thing to set your questions aside and just accept a new world in a film. The Purge concept is interesting but far from being smoothly planned out let alone detailed. That’s fine, though. It stands to be a thinker and serve the film for the better if it properly takes it’s issues to task. But it’s another story entirely when the film decides to fill the run time with characters making completely ridiculous choices. Classic uninspired jump scares and loud noises aside, the characters in The Purge make so many stupid and outright unbelievable decisions that it becomes a little difficult to ignore. Not picking up weapons, being completely unaware of their surroundings and the biggest offender of the film, splitting up and staying together at LITERALLY THE WORST TIMES EVER become reoccurring annoyances that are hard to get past, even if the action taking place in between those scenes works well.
I might be overselling the idiocy a little bit. At the end of the day, it wasn’t that bad of a detractor and at least made me vocal during the proceedings which can be fun at times too. The violence is visceral and will satiate those looking for a brutal home invasion story. What makes for the film’s biggest upset though is it’s inability to properly meld together it’s promising theory with the revenge-horror genre it’s sandwiched in. People looking for a decent allegory will leave the theaters upset that the movie never developed it’s potential, remaining just as farfetched as where it started. And those looking for that revenge story may feel underwhelmed with the whole experience and the film’s effort to take on the morals at inopportune times. Again, it’s a movie that would have worked much better by slamming the wheel full force in either direction and sticking the course. Because it tries to have the best of both worlds, it falls firmly in the middle.
