Movie Review: The Purge
When it comes to horror films I’m always a bit wary, even when the promotional material I’ve seen makes me think the film has a lot of potential. Too many times do horror films fail to set themselves apart, resorting to the same tropes and tricks that all other movies of their kind use. My thoughts going into The Purge were no different; I was on the fence over whether a novel concept would be able to differentiate the film in any real way from countless other movies in which a small family deals with a home invasion. Luckily, The Purge is able to tell a distinct story using its unique concept.
The concept I speak of is of course the annual Purge. In America’s near future this 12-hour event takes place once a year and allows citizens to engage in almost any form of crime without legal consequence, including murder. This is done in order to “purge” the nation’s citizens of their pent-up anger, and apparently results in extremely low crime and unemployment rates for the rest of the year.
While many other horror films with interesting concepts like this one rely on that premise to power the story, The Purge uses the idea of 12 hours of legal crime more as a backdrop to set the scene rather than as a mechanism to drive the entire plot. The film is about the characters, not the concept - which is why it works. The Purge itself takes an almost ancillary role in the movie’s story. It is included in the plot through a several snippets of radio and television broadcasts that happen not as the focus of the scene, but in the background as the characters go about daily tasks of driving home from work or eating dinner. This gives us enough to understand the Purge and its place in society but we're not given details on how exactly it came to be, which really aren't necessary to the plot anyway. The Purge is treated as a part of the characters’ lives instead of as the only reason for the movie to exist.
Still, the idea of the Purge, and how each character views it, is very prominent in the characters’ actions. Of the main characters of the story, an affluent family of four, the two parents (Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey) are proponents of the Purge because they are relatively well off and can keep their family protected during the 12 hour period. The children (Max Burkholder and Adelaide Kane) don’t fully understand the reasoning behind the Purge, but their parents assure them that it’s for the best. But when the youngest child offers a stranger refuge in their home after the Purge begins, morals are questioned and belief in the underlying idea of the Purge doubted when a group of people come looking for the unknown man and they find that even they are not immune to the Purge.
Once the stage has been set the tight, well-written script gets its chance to shine. Not only is there the typical tension and action that comes with a horror film (which is well done), but it is also mixed with moral quandaries and elements of a psychological thriller. Nearly all of the action and dialogue have a thematic or plot-driving purpose. Best of all, it’s not predictable. When presented with moral dilemmas, the characters are not archetypes that immediately make obvious choices that the script requires of their character to follow a typical plot. They make decisions and the action develops from their choices. Overall, the film delivers not only on its novel concept, but also on the details that many horror films and thrillers skip over in order to get cheap, empty scares.
Grade: B+
The Purge
Directed by: James DeMonaco
Written by: James DeMonaco
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane
Release date: June 7th, 2013
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