The Purge

The year is 2022 and the United States experiences 1% unemployment and no crime due to an annual 12-hour Purge in which all criminal activity is legal and citizens can release their anger and aggression they’ve pent up for the year. It’s a deadly free-for-all that lasts the night, but when the sun rises in the morning, America is a better place. At least, that’s the logic the “New Founding Fathers of America" want you to believe.

James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) has had a successful year and is the number one seller of home security devices at his company. He and his family prepare for the night’s Purge by locking down the house and staying safe. They don’t feel the need to “release the beast” within them and participate in the annual event. When their son lets a complete stranger take refuge in their house and the people who are after him coming knocking, James must do whatever it takes to protect his family and last the night.

The Purge tiptoes the line between what is morally right and wrong. Sure, killing someone during the Purge might be legal, but that doesn’t necessarily make it okay. For James, he’ll do anything if it’ll keep his wife and children safe. Despite the fact that he feels he doesn’t need to participate in the yearly ritual, that all changes once the intruders enter his house.

They’re led by a creepy and downright sinister man known only as the polite stranger (Rhys Wakefield). Don’t let his happy demeanor fool you, though. He’s a complete psychopath who believes it’s his government given right to hunt down this man hidden away in the Sandin’s home and kill him.

The Purge relies on cheap scare tactics such as extremely loud noises and dark narrow hallways in an attempt to be frightening. They’re plain and simple jump scares that don’t quite get the job done. There are also elements of action where James goes on a killing spree through his own home that feel a bit conflicting with the whole morality message of the film. Watching James take down three intruders with a shotgun isn’t something you should be cheering along with, although that’s what inevitably happens.

Entertaining as it is, The Purge attempts to be something else with its mixed bag of messages. It does a lot of things, but fails to do any of them exceptionally well.