Movie Review: The Purge
Rating: 1/2 Star
It’s been some time since I’ve seen what I consider an insultingly bad movie. I went into The Purge expecting a level of competency and intrigue. The result was a film that was a cacophony of poor direction, incoherent storytelling, and bad acting.
There are five of these movies! My brain preemptively thought back to how the first Saw was a perfectly well-made film with stellar performances and a mystery twist to tie it all together. The Purge is instead more like the first Final Destination. These are movies that are strong in their conceptual identity which draws you in but provides no substance beyond their hook.
The Purge crossed into the secular zeitgeist because it provides a topic of conversation that the film itself ironically barely delves into further than a few throwaway lines. The hook is simple, what if all crime was legal for one night? What would the average American citizen do if there was a Purge commencing in your neighborhood? Conceptually it’s a fun scenario to explore.
Director and writer James DeMonaco decides that the Purge’s effect would be related to the actual definition of a purge. The people targeted in the Purge are those that are homeless. The film suggests that the homeless are hunted. If you don’t think about it deeper than the surface level, you can allow it to make sense. But not exploring the concept of The Purge beyond the surface level is contrary to what makes the film compelling.
Coincidentally, this is DeMonaco’s second stint with Ethan Hawke, who starred in DeMonaco’s first film, Little New York. If there’s any ounce of enjoyment to be gotten out of The Purge, it’s definitely in how committed Ethan Hawke is to his role of James Sandin. There’s not a lot for Hawke to work off of, his own character is terribly written, but Hawke clearly was trying his best with the nonsense he was given.
The rest of the Sandin family and honestly any other character in the film was set up to fail. Character motivations are among the most laughable I’ve ever seen in a movie. The motivation may as well have been, “Whatever the dumbest possible thing I could do at this moment, I’m going to do that.”
The Purge is broken at a fundamental level. The Purge is considered a horror film but save for its concept and a few lame jumpscares, the film lacks the atmosphere needed to generate suspense. A horror film without suspense isn’t scary. After watching Hereditary a week ago, I can still recount several scenes that filled me with an overwhelming sense of dread. Half an hour into The Purge I was mentally checked out.
The Purge would’ve worked better as an action film more along the lines of Taken. In that scenario, The Purge event is a plot device that moves along from an action set piece to the next action set piece. The horror film angle of The Purge works if you’re not only willing to explore the moral dilemmas of the event, but also the effects it has on the family or community undergoing the event. I believe DeMonaco was attempting to stake his claim in the latter example, but never committed to bringing any substantial message or point across.
