Director: James DeMonaco
MPAA Rating: R
Film Pulse Score: 4/10
Imagine a world in which one day out of every year, all crime was legal. Theft, vandalism, murder, you can do whatever you want for twelve hours. James DeMonaco’s The Purge aims to explore what would happen if that were a reality, however it misses the target. Though the premise is a good one, The Purge squanders a good opportunity for something unique in favor of something tired and generic.
What the film offers is a typical home invasion story with the backdrop of an interesting concept. It’s the year 2022, and the crime rate has dropped to 1%, along with a stable economy, and very little joblessness. This is due to the annual purge, a day where people can embrace their inner crazy and do whatever they want.
Ethan Hawke plays the lead, a wealthy security system salesman so has a lovely wife (Lena Headey), and two angsty teens (Max Burkholder and Adelaide Kane). After the purge begins, the son allows someone into their home who is fleeing from a group of killers, putting everyone’s life at risk.
The film remains interesting until these masked killers make an appearance, which is unfortunately within the first 20 minutes of the film. From there everything becomes dull and boring, with only occasional bits of action to break from the monotony.
The group of killers were uninspired and bland, and even their masks were just copies of their actual faces, which basically defeated the purpose of the masks to begin with. They amounted to a bunch of spoiled rich kids who brought nothing to the table and were more annoying than they were scary. None of the horror elements in this film were earned and some were almost laughable.
Several plot elements are also introduced which appear to be important at first, but never materialize into anything relevant. So much time is spent on this creepy remote control tank that the son has, that the viewer is led to believe this is going to play some sort of major role in the film. This isn’t the case however, and feels completely pointless. The same goes for the son’s obsessive monitoring of his vitals, which come back in the lamest of fashions near the film’s climax.
The idea of having a purge is good, so why have the entire film be contained in one families home? It was clearly designed as an allegory of the divisions in class, so why not force the upper-class family out into the world to experience the purge in a more widespread fashion? The most disappointing aspect of this film, is thinking about how much better it could have been.
Rather than attempting to break the mold and attempt something different, The Purge settles for a lifeless home invasion thriller that brings nearly nothing new to the table, despite the promising backdrop. It’s probably better to just wait for You’re Next, which promises to be a much better home invasion experience.
