The Purge

[samsnee]

Interesting concept, but not exactly plausible. But then it turns into another home invasion movie, so beyond the concept, it doesn't appear like anything new.

Given the country's overcrowded prisons, the U.S. government begins to allow 12-hour periods of time in which all illegal activity is legal. During one of these free-for-alls, a family must protect themselves from a home invasion.

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[Whiskey Tango]

Aye I felt a little let down when I realized it was all going to take place at their home. Still I like Hawke and Headey and enjoyed Paranormal Activity and Sinister.

 

[hammerhedd11]

The premise has potential, but here it seems to be just an especially elaborate way to set up an otherwise conventional home invasion/slasher plot.

 

[Lasirius]

I want to see this.

 

[Ultimatehero]

The trailer is promising. I just don't like the music.

 

[DeGenerate10]

I thought it looked incredibly stupid

 

[redhawk23]

I saw this tonight.

I was interested in this film but didn't expect much from it. Ultimately I can't say I'm disappointed. I'm not much for the film overall but it had its moments.

Some people might be put off immediately by the premise. Personally I can level with it. Its basically like a Twilight Zone or Outer Limits premise and really it would have been suited to some kind of HBO equivalent of those kinds of anthology shows.

Still the idea that a yearly catharsis of violence would solve all of America's woes is kind of non-sensical, and the film actually touches on that point somewhat with some background news discussion of what purpose the Purge might actually be serving for society.

Basically, you either roll with the premise and get on with the movie or you just reject it outright. Again, I'm willing accept the basic premise for the sake of seeing what the film does with it.

At first it does go into some interesting directions touching on race and class. It basically takes the gated suburban subdivision mentality to its extreme. As someone who grew up in the suburbs, I must say the film does a good job of capturing (and later twisting) the fake attitude neighbors have towards one another and assumptions of safety.


The film of course settles around the invasion of killers on the free for all night into the family's home. While the house is locked down during the Purge, during which all crimes including murder are legal, a young boy allows an injured man to enter and hide in their house drawing the attention of a group of fanatics who wish to kill him and threaten to kill the family if the do not turn him over. This sets up an ethical struggle for the family as they struggle to capture the man hiding in their house in order to save themselves.

Once you move past the basic premise of what the Purge is, the actual setup of the conflict is effective, with the family caught in the crossfire of a dehumanizing ritualistic hunt and having to define for themselves where they draw their own ethical lines on a night where the laws don't do so for them.

Basically, I like the setup of the story, there's quite a bit of not so subtle but effective subtext, the family characters are all pretty well established.

The killers outside the home are interesting. Young, educated people, fanatical about the purpose of the Purge who take to killing with religious fervor, they are a vision of what people who grow up in a culture where something like the Purge is standard might be like.

The film has many issues though. Again, if you can't level with the premise, the film is DOA. I dig it, but I understand that not everyone will.

Once all the pieces of the conflict are in place the film gets very repetitive. The man they are looking for escapes and hides several times.

There are many occasions, and several scenes in a row, where they do the old thing where a character is in danger only to have the threat, or the person threatening them, neutralized by someone standing off screen. This happens over and over again in this film.

Weirdly, the film attempts to have jumpscares, and many of them, essentially people in mask jumping out from behind corners. It is quite silly and completely unneeded. It actually ruins the tension built by the premise itself.

And again, things get very repetitive as the movie goes on, with severely diminishing returns from scene to scene. Its a shame because the film has a lot of good elements that are somewhat squandered by diluting them.

Another thing, and this might not seem like much, but the house itself is never established. There's a lot of vague talk about the security measures in place and mentions of additions to the house, and again the film is centered around the house and people trying to break in, but the film never takes time to really set up where anything is in relation to everything else or what factors are at play. I'd say this is a pretty major misstep .

This film also takes some odd shifts tonally and thematically. It starts off as a fairly effective critique, satire, and terrifying exaggeration of violence and class divisions in our society.

As the film goes on though it kind of shifts into a glorification of a violent fantasy wherein a man uses his big cabinet full of guns to fend off waves of violent attackers and protect is wife and children. Its like one big commercial for a Castle Law ballot initiative Its a bit jarring. To be quite honest, taken individually, this portion of the movie features some outstanding action filmmaking. Its fairly short, but really, Ethan Hawke takes place in one of the best shootouts/hand to hand fight scenes that I have seen in ages. I look forward to more from the director, but hopefully he can get a better script next time.

Overall, I'd say the Purge is worth a watch, but I recommend waiting for a rental.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

This movie has gotten mixed reviews from movie goers, critics naturally don't care for it. I plan to see it tomorrow night, hopefully it will be decent. Also this movie also prompts alot of discussion about the premise and what its trying to say about today's society etc.

 

[samsnee]

The premise just isn't believable at all.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

The premise just isn't believable at all.

Yea the premise is cool until you start to think about it ha.

 

[Marvin]

Cool premise, bad movie.
my opinion.

 

[DaRkVeNgeanCe]

I really wanted this to be good because the premise sounded very interesting but after the word of mouth I'm hearing I probably won't even watch it.

 

[samsnee]

Yea the premise is cool until you start to think about it ha.

Like if I stab someone and they're bleeding and they don't technically die until after the Purge is over, am I guilty of murder?

Why wouldn't the rich just leave the country for a week instead of staying home?

There are no medical services, but what about people already in the hospital? What if a woman goes into labor during the 12-hour period?

 

[redhawk23]

Like if I stab someone and they're bleeding and they don't technically die until after the Purge is over, am I guilty of murder?

Why wouldn't the rich just leave the country for a week instead of staying home?

There are no medical services, but what about people already in the hospital? What if a woman goes into labor during the 12-hour period?

The rich are the ones doing the killing, mostly killing off the poor.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

Like if I stab someone and they're bleeding and they don't technically die until after the Purge is over, am I guilty of murder?

Why wouldn't the rich just leave the country for a week instead of staying home?

There are no medical services, but what about people already in the hospital? What if a woman goes into labor during the 12-hour period?

All valid questions and prove why the premise is outlandish and would never work in the real world.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

Good thing it's a horror movie and not a documentary.

 

[The Dark Defender]

It's ok.

Servicable home invasion flick that's fairly suspenseful, it's a really stupid piece of political propaganda though.

Much like Funny Games it's a competently made movie that's dragged down by stupid social commentary.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

I actually liked the premise, and think it could have been explored better if they hadn't made it another home invasion film. I wouldn't mind if they made a sequel set during another purge night and following a different set of characters, maybe actually taking part on the purge.

 

[The Dark Defender]

Considered it pulled in $16 mill on Friday alone (well counting Thursday 10 pm showings) on a mere $3 mill budget, a sequel of some sort seems pretty likely now.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

Thats good to hear, unlike a lot of other horror movies these days, I feel like this one actually lends itself to a franchise.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

It's a okay movie not great by any means. Like many have said, the premise is cool until you really think about it and it really becomes extremely unrealistic. However, Ethan Hawke and Linda Heady do give some soild performances here and are the people who carry this film really. What really would have helped this film alot is if they spent time exploring the background of the purge and showing the effects all over the US ( like they implied in the opening credits). Instead of doing something cool and original the movie settles for the run of the mill home invasion slasher style film.

The characters do the stupid horror movie cliches like splitting up etc. Speaking of which, the daugther in this movie was SUPER annoying when it came to that. She was constantly running off from the rest of the family for NO reason at all during a life or death situation. The son was also kind of annoying. Also, the lead guy from the killer gang that looked like Draco Malfoy ha was over the top and cartoonish. I will say there at least two bad ass scenes one involving Ethan Hawk and another one at the end with Linda Heady. The ending was also decent. But at the end of the day this is just a generic run if the mill home invasion movie. The filmmakers had a interesting premise but failed to capitalize on it. 6.5/10 for me

 

[redhawk23]

All valid questions and prove why the premise is outlandish and would never work in the real world.

Does that really matter?

 

[The Dark Defender]

The IMDB board for this movie is practically nothing but bickering about whether this idea is practical or not in reality.

Even though I'm personally not very big on this movie, I don't see why it matters that much either.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

Does that really matter?

Not really. I just said that because a common compliant with the movie is the premise and how unrealistic it is.

 

[Ultimatehero]

Most movies have unrealistic premises lol. That's why they're escapism entertainment. And seeing this tomorrow.