Year of Release | 2013 |
Director | James DeMonaco |
Starring | Ethan Hawke |
Made in 2013 and set in 2022, the Purge is another is another in a long line of Film Noir set in a not too distant future. A future where America has gone down a rabbit hole of violence and corruption. This one has a few twists though. A yearly tradition called “The Purge” has been introduced, in which participants can legally commit almost any crime, including murder for this one night of the year. Introducing something like this would obviously disadvantage those of lesser financial means (homeless, those in lower socio-economic groups etc..) as they wouldn’t be able to defend themselves. After a few years this tradition has virtually elimited crime and jobless-ness except for this one night where all hell breaks loose.
THE PLOT
This movie is based around the Sandin family. Father James (Ethan Hawke) is doing quite well for himself running a security system business. In a climate like this, its needless to say he now has a huge house that is well secured for himself and his family. Unfortunately his daughter lets her boyfriend in before the purge starts. To make matters worse his son lets in a homeless guy. Little do they know the homeless guy has been targeted by a bunch of rich young folk exercising their right to purge. He doesn’t realise a gang of purgers have followed him to the house. The persuing purgers of course, threaten to invade the house and kill everyone in it.
Does James give up the homeless guy to save himself? Can his super secure house hold off a team of murderous rich kids? Can the family survive in this “every man for himself” environment till sunup when the purge ends? Well, I guess to find out you’ll have to watch the movie!
THE PLOT
This movie is a super grim look at a future that one gets the feeling could well happen. THe movie is harsh, violent and unforgiving. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through. This was the epitome of a great horror movie, it unnerved me, as I felt this could so easily happen in a society where wealth is might, and might is right. I could go into a whole moralisation about wealth and how it shouldn’t make some people better than others but you guys want to hear about the movie right? Well, I enjoyed it thoroughly and can’t recommend it enough. The purge doesn’t rely on expensive special effects. It only cost a mere $3 million to make. Despite this it earned $90 million at the box office. This makes me feel good that a well written and executed film can still do well at the box office!
I can’t wait to review more of the Purge series for you guys. I’ve seen a couple of the others and they all measure up. These can be watched as individual films or hell, go out and get the lot of them!
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