The Purge (2013) Movie Review
‘The Purge’ pitches us into the year 2022 where America’s desperation to eradicate the high crime rate and unemployment infesting society has resulted in the legalisation of any and all crime over 12 hours on the night of March 21st to the morning of March 22nd . This event, known as ‘The Purge’, ceases the running of all emergency services over this 12 hour period in order to sustain a low crime rate throughout the rest of the year.
We are homed in on the Sandin family made up of parents,
James (Ethan Hawke), Mary (Lena Headey) and the kids Charlie (Max Burkholder)
and Zoey (Adelaide Kane). The Sandin family are normally safe, during ‘The Purge’, behind their security system that James Sandin has made his fortune selling to
local neighbours. But this year’s ‘Purge’ is thrown into turmoil for the Sandin’s
when they are confronted by masked assailants that turn this film, (that is perceived
to be horror movie), into an invasion thriller flick.
Firstly believability is a key issue. This movie is flawed from
the begging as it fails to emotionally attach you to this concept actually being believable.
The idea that in nine short years, (well even earlier than that as this film
gives the impression that there has been a few Purge’s prior to this one), ‘murder
will be legalised for one day’ needs to have well thought reasoning behind it
to help attach ourselves to the story, other than it just saying this event helps
cleanse society to release their anger as we all have this violence.
Though this is set in the near future it still feels
extremely distant to a realistic scenario where the government allows the legalisation
of murder, this is ultimately down to this lack of substance being why it is
taking place and what benefit it causes.
The Sandin’s are only involved in this year’s Purge due to
one decision, made by their son Charlie, to deactivate the security system and
rescue a homeless man being pursued by the mob of masked assailants, that
eventually wind up standing on the Sandin’s front door step.
Motives aren’t really well addressed either. The only reason
these people, led by Rhys Wakefield’s character, are after this man is that he
killed one of their friends. In one scene in this film where the leader of
these creepy assailants is talking to James through the camera on the door, he
kills one of his friends for interrupting him. This shows he doesn’t really
care about his friends and it’s a poor motive to go to all this effort
for one man.
There isn’t any motive either behind a certain characters
actions that is already present in the Sandin home when ‘Purge’ begins and we
never find out what they aimed to accomplish by their actions either.
The majority of characters are very dumb whited as well. The
Sandin’s always seem adamant to split up from each other when there are crazy
people out to kill them wandering in their house. On top of this the masked people
are just as stupid. They ignore the gun fire taking place from some of the
early encounters when they invade the house and continue to search for the Sandin’s
like the gun fire is mute, either they are deaf or as big as this house looks
its somehow able to mask gun fire shots.
The masked people also don’t really value their own lives,
they seem more adamant giving each other piggy-backs than thinking that there could
potentially be a Sandin waiting around the corner with a gun.
This so called horror isn’t one bit scary either. Yes it is
creepy at times, but the majority of that comes from before they get into the
Sandin home. It’s also predictable in parts such as when that overly used
moment of the music becoming mute signals an appearance of an assailant appearing
behind one of the characters.
I wasn’t a fan of the twist at the end either that was again
another factor that lacked a believable motive and also executed poorly.
Some of the acting is good in this film, such as performances
from Ethan Hawke and Lena Headley, that overall make this experience bearable.
Rhys Wakefield also does succeed in creating this creepy character, though in
my opinion it would of felt more sinister had he left his mask on than revealing
his face.
Though this film has problems I'm sure there will be many sequels to follow as these low budget and high grossing movies have become all the range today. There is potential for the Purge sequel (when it does come about) to be turned into a good movie, but after seeing 'The Purge' its hard to see how they will be able to change these poor foundations that have been already set in stone.
Overall this unique looking story of murder being legalised for one
day had the potential foundations to be great, but due to poor execution and a
lack of believable substance going into the main story and reasoning behind why
this event is taking place this so called horror is merely just a mediocre home
invasion flick.
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