Movie Review - The Purge

The Purge (2013)

Starring Ethan Hawke, Lena Headley, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane, Edwin Hodge, and Rhys Wakefield

Directed by James DeMonaco

The concept behind The Purge is interesting enough.  As the opening credits state, we are transported to America 2022.  Unemployment is at 1%.  Crime is at an all low.  Violence barely exists.  With one exception.  Once a year, the government has enacted a twelve-hour period known as The Purge in which citizens can commit any crime they want and not be charged -- murder included -- in order to get out their aggressions and frustrations.  For the wealthy, elaborate alarm systems are an affordable option and many have had them installed in their homes in order to protect themselves on this one night a year when chaos runs rampant.  For the Sandin family, this should be just like all the other Purges that have come before seeing as how father James (Ethan Hawke) sells elaborate and expensive home protection systems and has had such a system installed in his family's home.  However, after his son allows a homeless man who was being pursued by a bunch of twentysomethings into their home in the midst of the Purge, chaos breaks out for the Sandin family.  When the group hunting down the man -- for no reason other than to simply to release their primal urges and frustrations -- discovers that the Sandins have given the man sanctuary, they'll stop at nothing to enact revenge.

The problem with The Purge is that despite a premise that offers appeal (on a horror movie level), the story itself is abysmally written.  Characters appear and disappear simply out of convenience.  Murderers stop and talk to their victims prior to attempting to kill them giving others ample time for someone to stop them.  There's a plot device in the film's opening act in which the Sandin daughter's boyfriend attempts to kill her father that's brushed by the wayside and forgotten about as the film progresses.  And the ending -- for anyone who's seen this, can they honestly explain the motivation behind the "twist" in the film's final minutes?  I just found myself laughing.  And therein is the film's problem.  It can't capitalize on an unique premise.

The RyMickey Rating:  D