THE PURGE (2013)

Studio:       Universal Pictures
Director:    James DeMonaco
Writer:       James DeMonaco
Producer:  Jason Blum, Sebastien K. Lemercier, Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller
Stars:     Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Adelaide Kane, Max Burkholder, Edwin Hodge, Rhys Wakefield, Chris Mulkey

Review Score: 

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Summary:

A family is forced to defend their home on the one night each year when all crime is legal in America. 

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

America, 2022: Unemployment is at 1% and crime is at an all-time low. One night each year, all crime is legal for 12 hours as a means for citizens to release their aggression and violent urges. Blue baptisia flowers symbolize support for The Purge.

March 21, 2022 – 5:58pm – James Sandin makes a living selling home security systems. Returning home before the annual Purge begins, James checks on his neighbor Mr. Cali. At home, his wife Mary tells James that their teenage daughter Zoey is still sulking over being forbidden to see her 18-year-old boyfriend Henry. While planting flowers outside, neighbor Grace Ferrin gives Mary a plate of homemade cookies. Neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Halverson also stop by and say hello. Grace mentions to Mary that the neighborhood gossip attributes the Sandin family’s lifestyle to James selling expensive security systems to everyone in the community. Henry sneaks out of Zoey’s bedroom when he hears James enter the house. From a hidden cubbyhole in his bedroom closet, the Sandin’s son Charlie plays with a remote control doll-tank hybrid fitted with a video camera that he has named Timmy.

After dinner, the Sandins prepare for lockdown. On the security monitors, they see that Grace Ferrin is hosting a party. James arms himself with a handgun and then arms the security system. Metal doors slide down across all doors and windows. An emergency broadcast plays on TV and a siren sounds outside.

Zoey returns to her bedroom and discovers Henry waiting for her. He claims that he is going to speak with James about his relationship with her. On the monitor, Charlie sees and hears a man pleading for help as he is being chased. Charlie disarms the security system and the man makes it inside the Sandin home before James rearms the doors. While the family confronts the stranger, Henry pulls a gun from the staircase and fires at James. James returns fire and hits Henry. In the confusion, the stranger disappears. Zoey goes upstairs with Henry.

James looks for his daughter but finds only Henry’s dead body. A group of masked and armed strangers comes to the door and threatens to break into the Sandin home if they do not turn over the man who entered their house. The strangers then cut the main power. James decides to find the stranger and give him to the group in order to spare his family’s lives. Using Timmy, Charlie finds the stranger and leads him to the cubbyhole.

Acting as the group’s spokesperson, the Polite Stranger speaks to James through the door. During their conversation, the Polite Stranger shoots an unruly member of his own group. James resumes his search and finds the homeless stranger holding Zoey hostage at gunpoint. Holding a gun of her own, Mary appears behind the man and creates a distraction. In an ensuing struggle, Zoey and the man are knocked unconscious. James and Mary use duct tape to restrain the man. Mary stabs the man when he comes to and begins resisting. Threatening to stab him again, the Sandins are then able to tape him to a chair, although Mary questions their actions. In the meantime, Charlie disappears.

The strangers outside fasten chains to the security doors. James arms his family and decides to fight instead of turning over the man. The Polite Stranger announces that the deadline to deliver the “homeless swine” has passed. The group tears down the doors and enters the home. In the basement, the homeless man struggles his way free from the chair.

An intruder finds Charlie, but James appears in time to shoot the intruder dead. James confronts and kills more intruders, but the Polite Stranger stabs him. Outside, neighbors including the Ferrins and Halversons arrive and execute the remaining strangers, including a woman about to kill Mary. Mary and Charlie find James dying before being confronted by the Polite Stranger. Zoey then appears and shoots him.

The neighbors reveal that they rescued the Sandins so that they could kill the family themselves out of hatred and envy. As they prepare the Sandins for death, the homeless stranger reappears and shoots Mr. Cali. He then forces the Ferrins and Halversons to untie the Sandins. However, Mary decides to wait until The Purge ends at 7am rather than kill the neighbors for revenge. When the siren sounds, Mary tells the neighbors to leave. The homeless man sets down his weapon and also exits. Helicopters and sirens can be heard in the distance.

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Review:

In revealing the inspiration behind “The Purge” at the 2013 Stanley Film Festival, writer/director James DeMonaco relayed a story involving a drive in New York with his wife.  Cut off by a careless driver, the husband and wife had a heart racing experience that saw their lives flash before their eyes.  When the adrenaline subsided, Mrs. DeMonaco said to her husband, “if only we were allowed one a year.”

In the heat of the moment, that thought has crossed everyone’s mind at one time or another.  Of course, having that thought does not make someone inherently evil, merely human.  The will to act on that thought is another debate entirely.  “The Purge” brings that concept into its fiction for a vision of America in 2022, when unemployment holds at just 1% and violent crime is at an historic low.  Those comforting statistics come at a steep cost, however.  On one night each year, Americans are allowed to gorge their inner beast when all crime becomes legal for 12 hours.  This annual purge of violent behavior and criminal indulgence is what pacifies the populace for the other 364.5 days.

That plot contrivance is implausible for 2052, let alone 2022.  And this is where those unable to accept the idea for the story’s sake will find themselves exiting the train before it leaves the station.  The ability to enjoy and be entertained by “The Purge” goes hand in hand with the ability to buy the fiction, even temporarily.  There are going to be complainers unwilling to entertain the premise for even a fleeting moment.  A concept as absurd as “The Purge” births innumerable questions.  Would the United Nations conceivably sanction such an activity?  Who cleans up all of the bodies in the morning?  Are there seasonal coroners and funeral directors like there are mall employees during Christmastime?

“The Purge” is not about the global view and it is equally uninterested in addressing those larger details.  “The Purge” is simply a self-contained and controlled story that utilizes the setup.  Once the premise is accepted for what it is, the film finds a way to make its mark as both class separation commentary and as a home invasion thriller.

In an impassioned performance, Ethan Hawke is an upper middle class family man who finds his home besieged when his son offers a man safety from pursuing attackers.  Dressed as prep school Ivy Leaguers, those pursuers offer Hawke a simple ultimatum.  Give up the man hiding in their home, or they will tear down the security doors and kill everyone inside.  The decision is already morally difficult, but the problem with living in a mansion without working power is that this man is not so easily found.  Lock a homicidal boyfriend of the teenage daughter behind those walls too and a planned night of watching Purge victims slaughtered live on TV becomes an unexpected fight for survival.

“The Purge” has script problems unrelated to the premise.  As difficult to comprehend as the concept of The Purge is, more baffling is the depiction of the hour leading up to the annual event.  People walk their dogs, bake cookies for the neighbors, and exhibit nonchalant behavior for a community about to turn murderous or cower in fear 60 minutes later.  As Hawke and his family discuss their days over dinner, they almost casually remember just minutes before the warning siren, “oh hey, it’s almost time for The Purge!”  The intent is to show people going about their regular routines unaffected, but who could remain composed to the point of nearly forgetting the rampage’s scheduled start time?  7pm commencement be damned.  I would be holed up in my fortress for hours leading up to The Purge, ever cognizant of exactly what minute the terror was set to begin.

Being a nationwide release from a major studio, “The Purge” plays with more typical Hollywood conventions than other horror films would.  The jolts are delivered via the usual jump scares, such as a closing door that has someone standing behind it.  The middle act is noticeably slower than the rest of the film.  As if to lengthen the story, various characters go missing for long stretches of time leading to flashlight lit searches through darkened rooms.  It happens so often and for such extended periods that one cannot help but wonder, exactly how big is this house supposed to be?  And once mayhem ensues, the beats are predictable regarding who shoots whom, and who will arrive in the nick of time to save someone else.

What is not predictable is the third act.  Where “The Purge” bucks convention is in the arc shift regarding what the film is actually about.  As formulaic as the suspense structure is, the story is much greater than a simple action piece about Ethan Hawke and the lengths to which he will go to protect his family.  “The Purge” is surprisingly deeper than that and becomes more provocative in its message while imparting the visceral thrills of watching bullets tear deservedly through masked intruders.

While the scares come cheaply from the jumps, there is a Manson-esque undertone to the proceedings that fuels creepiness on a different level.  The Ivy League assassins holding the home hostage wear distinctive masks, but it is their mannerisms that capture another form of terror.  The women in the group hold hands and dance whimsically in flowing white dresses, reveling in the rush of anticipation for The Purge.  It is eerily reminiscent of the way that the Manson Family girls marched hand in hand as they smiled and sang their way down a Los Angeles courtroom hallway.  The suburban nightmare feel is unsettling.  And “The Purge” conveys this tension well.

Unsurprisingly, actor Rhys Wakefield, whose angular features grant him the perfect look for the Polite Stranger terrorizing the home, admitted being influenced by Vincent Bugliosi’s “Helter Skelter.”  Writer/director DeMonaco confessed a similar fascination with the crimes of the Manson Family.  With the film shot only one mile from the Spahn Ranch where Charles Manson and his followers once resided, there is a definite hippie cult vibe coloring the tone.

Had “The Purge” been released in the same time period when such cults flourished, the film would have thrived without as much scrutiny over the concept.  Filmgoers of the 1970’s were more tolerant and forgiving of offbeat ideas as societal allegory.  Had that been the case, then contemporary college term papers would use “The Purge” to contemplate the themes and ambiguous morality explored by the film, just as they would “Soylent Green” or “Logan’s Run.”

Shot in just 20 days, the script for “The Purge” is as tight as the shooting schedule.  While Hollywood style cheats are used, it is chiefly to move the story to where it needs to be in order to be poignant and entertaining.  There are obvious contrivances, such as Timmy, the remote controlled robot conveniently outfitted with a night vision camera, but what the film does well is more satisfying and more interesting than its forgivable failures.  When the formula recedes into the background and the mood of the film takes center stage, “The Purge” succeeds at delivering an effective mainstream horror thriller.

Review Score:  80

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