Film Review - THE PURGE ★★☆☆☆

Welcome to America in 2022. A nation reborn. Unemployment is down to 1%, people get along just fine, and crime is non-existent. Well that last part has a huge asterisk attached. One night a year, the government sanctions a night for citizens to commit prosecution-free crime, which includes murder, and all emergency services are suspended. By allowing The Purge, as its called, the idea is everyone's pent up agression is permitted for a scheduled release during a 12-hour period, leaving only peace and harmony for the remaining 364 calendar days of the year. Though certain upper classes and government officials are exempt as potential 'victims,' for the most part its the perceived vagrant tier who are the ones used as target practice when the right to "unleash the beast" is savagely invoked.

If you can get past this ridiculous scenario set in a dystopian future, you will be able to hang on board for this tense and bloody home invasion thriller. To be fair though for all you snarky nitpickers, the dystopian future premise here is still not as far fetched than anything presented in The Hunger Games. It's also worth nothing that The Purge is an extremely violent film, with more than a fair amount of bloody graphic gun play. But there is no pretension in the advertising that it would be anything otherwise, so you should know full well what you are setting yourself up for once your ass in settled in the theater.

Ethan Hawke plays James Sandin, a high-end home-security salesman who has made a lot of profit by outfitting his well-to-do gated community with Purge-proof systems. At 7PM on March 21st its Purge night as usual, and he battens down the hatches at his spacious abode for hopefully 12 incident free hours with wife Mary (Lena Headey) and children Zoey (Adelaide Kane) and Charlie (Max Burkholder).

Lockdown is going well as can be until Charlie takes pity on an bloody and battered outsider who has a murderous masked gang hot on his tail. The silly child lets him into the house and things go downhill quickly from there. On this night, its the ominous gang's full legal right to cleanse society of this vagrant. Their leader (a chilling and over the top Rhys Wakefield) demands that the Sadins surrender the stranger for imminent slaughter, or they will use the necessary tools to tear into their home and kill everyone, which is still within their legal Purge night rights.

Hawke's James Sadin is a good family man, and a cog in the futuristic system merely adhering to society's ridiculous set rules when he's thrown into this life or death situation. He is faced with the moral dilemma to save his family by turning over the wounded war vet to die with no legal repercussions or maintain his soul by providing him safety and risking the lives of his loved ones. What digs at you here is the gang falls within their right to commit the reprehensible acts according to the new world order.

There wouldn't be much more movie if the moral high road was the road not taken, so the lights go out and the ultra violent home invasion commences. That said, I was able to disconnect when it came to the scant details provided about the entire inane concept of the Purge and took it as a highly effective thriller from that point on. Director James DeMonaco frames the action mostly in tight shots, and often handheld. By leaving the large house mainly unexplored before the main event, the contant unknown adds to the film's relentless claustrophobic atmosphere. With killers lurking in the shadows at any given moment, the middle act plays out as an effective thriller, capitalizing on sudden booming sound effects.

The Purge runs under 90 minutes, a HUGE plus for one who feels comedies and horror movies are best kept to a tight 90 rather than a bloated 120. The trim running time keeps it pound for pound and bang for your buck moving along constantly. Frankly I found not an ounce of fat in the film's pacing.

I'll say at least the audience I was among last night was way into it, cheering at all the critical hero moments. Hawke gives a solid performance here as a father who does whatever he can to protect his family. Even if the choices aren't entirely morally right, in the film's context, they remain legally right. and any person would probably make the same choices in succesion. But its not to say the film could have benefitted from extra expository screen time to ease the audience into the deeper ramifications behind the Purge itself.

Lena Headey provides as his wife what she does best, a strong and stoic female figure with the subtle frown of heavy burden. Following her roles in 300, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Game of Thrones with The Purge, I really do wish for her a rousing romantic comedy lined up sometime in the future. It would be nice to see her smile and laugh incessantly on screen.

The main villain, who does not wear a mask, is a chilling college attired madman courtesy of Rhys Wakefield. At times over the top, but provides a menacing face to the otherwise disguised group of marauders in the film.

The film sticks firmly to its ridiculous moral-less premise, and only once you accept that all forms of extreme violence is legal in the United States for a 12-hour period can you move forward. But they play it correct by their own twisted rule book. But on the surface there is an intense thriller about self preservation that at times delivers edge of your seat scares and suspense. It certainly has its jump out moments at times manages to maintain a non-stop pulse pounding pace that should satisfy the intended audience of this genre. There are less than subtle comments on race, class and the underlying turncoat nature that may exist in a Stepford Wives worthy neighborhood, but all rolled into the film's scant running time, a platform for over analyzing social commentary this is not.

The Purge opens in theaters on June 7th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★☆☆☆
Director: James DeMonaco
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane, Edwin Hodge, Rhys Wakefield
Screenwriters: James DeMonaco
Studio: Universal Pictures
Rated: R
Running Time: 85 minutes

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