"The Purge" - 2013, Dir. by James DeMonaco
Did you ever go to a restaurant, look at the menu, and spot a dish that seems really good? You look at the ingredients and think, "Wow, that sounds excellent." Then, your plate arrives, and you realize that the execution was so poor, that you are now completely unsatisfied? Yes? Well, that's exactly what happened with "The Purge".
The films starts out with what I thought was a terrific premise. In 2022, America has recovered from economic collapse. Unemployment is at 1%, and violent crime is virtually non-existent. Why? Because one night a year, for 12 hours, all crime is legal, no matter how hideous. You wanna kill your neighbor? Go right ahead. Rape, steal, burn down a building? Go for it! The theory being that we are a violent society by nature, so this night, known as "The Purge", is a way for people to unleash the rage and violence they have been holding back the rest of the year.
Thanks to James Sandin (Ethan Hawke, whose talents are completely wasted), people who can afford to, have installed state-of-the-art security systems in their homes, so they can barricade themselves against the violence which will ensue. James has gotten quite rich selling these systems, and he and his wife (Lena Headey) and two children plan to have a quiet evening at home, sealed in their fortress. Once the mayhem ensues, their son (quite obviously the conscience of the film), opens their doors to a man who is being attacked. Soon, the man's masked attackers show up and demand to have him back, otherwise they will breach the home's defenses, and kill everyone inside. And here is where the wheels came off the wagon....
The films starts out with what I thought was a terrific premise. In 2022, America has recovered from economic collapse. Unemployment is at 1%, and violent crime is virtually non-existent. Why? Because one night a year, for 12 hours, all crime is legal, no matter how hideous. You wanna kill your neighbor? Go right ahead. Rape, steal, burn down a building? Go for it! The theory being that we are a violent society by nature, so this night, known as "The Purge", is a way for people to unleash the rage and violence they have been holding back the rest of the year.
Thanks to James Sandin (Ethan Hawke, whose talents are completely wasted), people who can afford to, have installed state-of-the-art security systems in their homes, so they can barricade themselves against the violence which will ensue. James has gotten quite rich selling these systems, and he and his wife (Lena Headey) and two children plan to have a quiet evening at home, sealed in their fortress. Once the mayhem ensues, their son (quite obviously the conscience of the film), opens their doors to a man who is being attacked. Soon, the man's masked attackers show up and demand to have him back, otherwise they will breach the home's defenses, and kill everyone inside. And here is where the wheels came off the wagon....
Sooooo.......despite an intriguing premise that could have turned into dozens of stories about people all around the country dealing with The Purge, what we have is a story contained to a very small space, a handful of characters, and a generic home invasion story. Basically, "The Strangers", but much less scary or interesting.
The film almost immediately abandons its identity and falls back on too many tired and familiar horror tropes, like when the power goes out and the characters get stuck in the dark, with flashlights which amazingly cast far more light than their spread should allow. They even take that to a ridiculous extreme in this film. Other films can get away with this because there's moonlight, or light from street lamps, but in a house where all the doors and windows have steel barricades, the house should be completely cloaked in darkness. BUT, our "heroes" have handheld flashlights that light up most of a room. Oh, and we can't forget the "Let's have this character make blindingly stupid decisions" cliche'. I always say that none of us can really say what we would or would not do in a crisis situation, but come on! The son and daughter in this film are so astonishingly dumb that I was actively rooting for them to die first.
I could almost, ALMOST forgive what they did with the film, but in making the decision to narrow the focus of the film down to a single family dealing with a horrific night, the filmmakers needed to give us characters that we cared about and could empathize with. Instead, the children are irritating, and the parents are just, well, bland. In order to inspire true fear in the viewer, we need to feel for these people and want them to survive. Instead, in addition to wanted to two kids to die horrificly, I found myself not really caring if the parents died or survived.
Oh, it gets worse.......The final act of the film contained a few "twists" that were so obvious, that each audience member should have received a telegram at their seat announcing what was about to happen. If anyone seeing this film doesn't figure out what's coming, then they need to stick to cartoons. The last ten minutes of the film, I starting thinking about what kind of ice cream I was going to have later.
The film almost immediately abandons its identity and falls back on too many tired and familiar horror tropes, like when the power goes out and the characters get stuck in the dark, with flashlights which amazingly cast far more light than their spread should allow. They even take that to a ridiculous extreme in this film. Other films can get away with this because there's moonlight, or light from street lamps, but in a house where all the doors and windows have steel barricades, the house should be completely cloaked in darkness. BUT, our "heroes" have handheld flashlights that light up most of a room. Oh, and we can't forget the "Let's have this character make blindingly stupid decisions" cliche'. I always say that none of us can really say what we would or would not do in a crisis situation, but come on! The son and daughter in this film are so astonishingly dumb that I was actively rooting for them to die first.
I could almost, ALMOST forgive what they did with the film, but in making the decision to narrow the focus of the film down to a single family dealing with a horrific night, the filmmakers needed to give us characters that we cared about and could empathize with. Instead, the children are irritating, and the parents are just, well, bland. In order to inspire true fear in the viewer, we need to feel for these people and want them to survive. Instead, in addition to wanted to two kids to die horrificly, I found myself not really caring if the parents died or survived.
Oh, it gets worse.......The final act of the film contained a few "twists" that were so obvious, that each audience member should have received a telegram at their seat announcing what was about to happen. If anyone seeing this film doesn't figure out what's coming, then they need to stick to cartoons. The last ten minutes of the film, I starting thinking about what kind of ice cream I was going to have later.
Now having said all that, “The Purge” is by no means completely terrible, but its failure to deliver upon its premise is frustrating. It was disappointing that the idea of "all crime being legal for one night" became simply an excuse to put these people into a sealed house. The film does also attempt to explore our culture of violence, and it tries to present the idea that The Purge is a way to rid the country of the weak, the poor and other undesirables that contribute nothing to society. Sort of a domestic "final solution" if you will. However, these ideas are presented through brief, onscreen TV news stories and seem almost like an aside. Is this a way to truly improve society, eliminate crime and improve the economy? Sadly, the film never expands upon these questions.
The violence is well executed, and there are definitely some tense scene. But again, it's nothing we haven't seen before.
There is final twist that introduces new characters with ridiculous motivations that seems to be a final, desperate attempt to suggest the idea that brutality is simply a part of human nature but again, the delivery of this message is so absurd as to remove all of its meaning. Now, not all movies need some deep meaning to succeed, but “The Purge” isn’t particularly thrilling or scary, so its original premise is all that it has left, and by not delivering, it ultimately fails. In a theater landscape full of superheroes, prequels and sequels, I had hoped for something different and better.
The violence is well executed, and there are definitely some tense scene. But again, it's nothing we haven't seen before.
There is final twist that introduces new characters with ridiculous motivations that seems to be a final, desperate attempt to suggest the idea that brutality is simply a part of human nature but again, the delivery of this message is so absurd as to remove all of its meaning. Now, not all movies need some deep meaning to succeed, but “The Purge” isn’t particularly thrilling or scary, so its original premise is all that it has left, and by not delivering, it ultimately fails. In a theater landscape full of superheroes, prequels and sequels, I had hoped for something different and better.