In the year 2022, the “New Founding Fathers” will declare that one night a year, from 7 PM to 7 AM, citizens of the United States will be invited to “Release the Beast” and relieve themselves of any pent up anger, resentment, rage, or any such similar emotional anguish in most any way they best see fit. As far as the new film The Purge is concerned, people will primarily do this through murder and as far as the law is concerned you won’t be held responsible as long as your crime takes place within this 12-hour time frame.
Of course, if you’re anything like me, you’re probably already considering the likelihood of something like this actually working. What about murder that takes place at 6:59 PM? How do insurance claims work? The film says government officials on a high enough level have immunity from being murdered, but what of people bed-ridden in hospitals?
Obviously the film asks we forget such questions as it works more on a metaphorical level than a logical one. We’re told unemployment is at a record low and the economy is flourishing as the action takes place in a gated community, home to a bunch of well-off individuals with the focus landing squarely on the Sandin household.
James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) has made a fortune as a home security salesman. In fact he sold nearly every single one of his neighbors his product and good thing considering you’re going to want to have the best in home protection when 12 hours a year anyone can just break in and kill you.
James and his wife (Lena Heady) have two children — a 16-year-old daughter Zoey (Adelaide Kane) and her younger brother Charlie (Max Burkholder). This year Charlie has taken a keen interest in “The Purge” wondering why people do it and asking his parents why they don’t participate in the government approved night of mass murder and it seems Charlie is more than just inquisitive as much as he’s also proactive.
Following lock-down, Charlie notices a man (Edwin Hodge) in the middle of their abandoned street, bloody and calling for help. He raises the security system just long enough to save the man from the mob on his tail, but a whole new world of hurt is about to descend on the Sandin family as a result of Charlie’s singular act of kindness.
A mob of masked individuals led by a man credited as the Polite Stranger (a rather annoying, over-the-top performance by Rhys Wakefield channeling a character I’d often associate with Alex Pettyfer) come knocking on the Sandin’s door, asking them to either send out the homeless man they just took in or risk them breaking in and killing them all. Sounds fun right?
The Purge, written and directed by James DeMonaco, is a fascinating diversion on the surface, but I had such a hard time overlooking not only the logical issues that naturally come about, but also the fact this film works like any sub-par thriller. Most of the thrills either depend on loud invasive music cues or the characters making bad decisions.
Granted, once you get done shrugging as a character does something no normal human would do, DeMonaco does a good job navigating the aftermath, supplying a satisfying level of tension thereafter, but continuing to grant movie a number of concessions can grow tiresome. We’re already conceding the fact there is no chance this scenario could ever happen, do we really have to accept that the characters will make so many dumb decisions as well?
However, I don’t want you to think the film is a complete lost cause. I really like the conversation it provokes — the value of human life, our irrational thoughts of jealousy and the problem with “top down” thinking. I also enjoyed Hawke’s performance as he goes from giving off the impression of just another slick-talking sales rep to protective father to something even darker in-between. He also gets involved in a fantastic action sequence as he takes on several intruders at once and Heady even gets to hand out her own bit of business and bloody noses near the end.
All things considered, the utilization of night vision, jump scares and people inexplicably running off into the dark where madmen lurk wore on me, even for a film that runs around 90 minutes long. Though the fact DeMonaco kept it short is a bonus. I’m sure many would like to see a sequel (which is apparently already in the works) featuring the mayhem on a larger scale, but unless you’re going to go for a zombie-less rehash of Dawn of the Dead, all that would do is limit the personal nature of the story, which is really one of the few things this film has going for it.
