The Purge
Rating: 3.5/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
For how popular The Purge is and for how many films there are in the franchise, I'm honestly shocked I haven't checked these movies out sooner. It seems like this series took the horror world by storm, and in a way, helped open the doors for Blumhouse to appeal to a much wider audience. So, when I started the movie for the first time, I might have had my expectations just a tad too high because it didn't blow me away or had me entertained like I thought it would. While I thought it was a decent horror flick that had some good performances and some fun scares, I think I was left expecting a lot more from this franchise's debut.
The movie follows the Sandin family on the night of the annual Purge - a period of 12-hours that occurs once a year that allows American citizens to commit any criminal act they wish without any repercussions. This includes burglary, trespassing, and even murder. James (Ethan Hawke) thinks him and his family - wife Mary (Lena Headey), daughter Zoey (Adelaide Kane), and son Charlie (Max Burkholder) - are safe due to the high-tech security systems that James sells for a living. However, when someone gets into their house during this time, it proves that the Sandins are not safe from both inside and outside forces.
Truly, my favorite thing about this film, and the rest of the movies in this franchise for that matter, is the concept. I think the idea of having a Purge every year that allows Americans to "cleanse their souls" is a genuinely terrifying concept, and in this day and age, it's not far off from what is happening in our country right now. So, this concept always stuck out to me by being really brilliant and unique, and I owe that credit to the creator of this series and the director of this film, James DeMonaco. However, while my appreciation for this concept is quite high, the execution, in my eyes, is lacking.
There is a montage at the beginning of this film that shows different crimes and actions that are committed on usual Purge nights. But that's it. That's truly all of the violence and mayhem we get to see in this film. Everything else is left to our own imaginations, and while that does work in other films, I think it would have benefited DeMonaco's movie by showing us a little bit of the action. The character of Polite Leader (which is played wickedly by Rhys Wakefield) is definitely demented, and they are able to show us that in the film. But, why aren't we seeing what he is actually going out there and doing when he is not stalking the Sandins? There is so much potential in the plot and the idea that I wish we had seen a lot more than we actually did. DeMonaco should have just taken a chance and swung for the fences here and find out what he could truly get away with.
However, with that being said, I think the performances here are quite decent. Many horror movies feature mediocre or passable performances in trade for jumpscares, but I think this movie does a good job of really making sure these actors are able to play these characters. It's refreshing seeing an actor of Hawke's caliber star in a film like this, and I think him and Headey are great as our two leads. Like I already mentioned before, Wakefield is brutally terrifying as the main antagonist here, and I'm really disappointed there isn't more to his character here. It feels like a wasted opportunity, one that hurts more than other opportunities in the horror genre.
The first film in the Purge franchise doesn't do anything too offensive or wrong in its execution. It's a perfectly fine little scary movie. But, the incredibly disappointing part is that it could have been so much more. Sure, he gives himself enough material to save for later to craft the series, but imagine how good this movie could have been if he really gave it his all. Are we now living in a world where we save the good stuff for the fifth or sixth movie instead of really making our mark with the first film we want to show the world? If so, that's a really bleak universe where we have to wait and wait for something to get better.
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