The main idea of The Purge is simply that of a scare tactic—to make the audience believe its events could actually happen, or more accurately, will be forced to happen. However, in order for such tactic to be effective, The Purge must both be engaging and frightening—something it is far from achieving.
The plot goes that America’s crime levels are at an all-time low thanks to an annual 12-hour time period known as “The Purge” where all crime becomes legal. The story follows a well-privileged family as they accidentally give shelter to a man wanted by a bunch of masked sociopathic vigilantes during said night. The story then follows the events that unfold as the family defends their house against the vigilantes.
The plot goes that America’s crime levels are at an all-time low thanks to an annual 12-hour time period known as “The Purge” where all crime becomes legal. The story follows a well-privileged family as they accidentally give shelter to a man wanted by a bunch of masked sociopathic vigilantes during said night. The story then follows the events that unfold as the family defends their house against the vigilantes.
The majority of people in America would most likely disagree with a purge day (in fact, it would probably terrify many). However, we can never be too sure what people would think of a purge and how they might actually decide it is a good idea…or worse, think that you are worthy of purging! This is the type of exploitation film The Purge is supposed to be, but is hindered by a major flaw: it's completely boring.
Going by its commercials, I got the impression that The Purge would be a scary, heart pumping, scared of those around you type of film. Instead, I found myself sitting there with my arm acting as a head rest—blankly staring at the big screen for an hour and a half, occasionally stopping to yawn as a jump scare occurred. And it wasn't just because the jump scares and action scenes were boring or predictable (because they were), but because they were short, scarce, and not satisfying at all. The movie’s pacing also felt quite rushed and never gave suitable time for suspense or tension. A scene would be quickly set up, played, and then followed by a short action sequence, with the cycle repeated in a similar manner by another scene.
Both the main idea and overall plot are never given a chance to build up any atmosphere because they are never properly set up right (though I will get to that shortly). There are even a few plot points set up only to be forgotten or hastily rushed, resulting in an unsatisfying conclusion. Even more interesting, and quite surprising, was that for an R rated movie, The Purge's blood and gore levels were surprisingly tame—something I thought they would (and should) have taken full advantage of for this type of film. It’s when an horror-thriller starts getting boring that the true damage begins to be done, as the audience begins to start looking at/questioning other aspects of the film—aspects such as the plot.
Both the main idea and overall plot are never given a chance to build up any atmosphere because they are never properly set up right (though I will get to that shortly). There are even a few plot points set up only to be forgotten or hastily rushed, resulting in an unsatisfying conclusion. Even more interesting, and quite surprising, was that for an R rated movie, The Purge's blood and gore levels were surprisingly tame—something I thought they would (and should) have taken full advantage of for this type of film. It’s when an horror-thriller starts getting boring that the true damage begins to be done, as the audience begins to start looking at/questioning other aspects of the film—aspects such as the plot.
The main idea of The Purge is an interesting idea, and I looked forward to seeing an extended explanation on how it worked. Unfortunately, as it turned out, what I saw in the commercials was as deep an explanation as I was going to get. Never is it thoroughly explained how the purge day began, how it first worked out, and how the rest of the world treated it. At the beginning, we’re given a very thin statement on how the economy got so bad that new leaders (known as the new founding fathers) were elected and began the purge day. The first question that popped into my mind was: how did these leaders get into power? Surely the poorer and middle-class citizens wouldn't vote for something like this (the risk would be way too high for them). Is America now a dictatorship, and if so, how did that happen!? I also get that the idea is to murder the “wasteful” people in the country so all that’s left is productive citizens, but doesn't that also mean the “wasteful” people would go out to murder the productive? It doesn't seem all that unlikely that the poorer and middle-class citizens would band together to defend/fight against those trying to get rid of them (you know, like a rebellion or civil war).
What about the people locked up in prisons? Since no military or police are helping on purge day wouldn't that allow all those prisoners to run free, form a group, and battle out with those who want to kill them? Wouldn't this also mean they’d have to be recaptured once again after the purge finishes (basically re-increasing the crime levels every year this happens)? What about organized crime such as the mob? Seems to me they'd have a fair chance of fighting back and maybe even eliminating some of their own competition legally. What about importation/exportation of drugs and weapons—how does the purge stop that from happening? And where are all these vigilantes getting their weapons from, because selling automatic machine guns doesn't sound like the best action plan towards stopping all crime?
I know I’m way overthinking this simple horror-thriller movie, but the more I think about it, the more it makes no sense (which is exactly what happens when a popcorn film can't keep your interest). And if you're going to promote The Purge for just these reasons then expect some backlash when you don’t deliver. For a film that aims to scare Americans into thinking this is the path we’re taking, it certainly does a low-quality job. I don’t think I heard a single positive comment from the audience as I left the theater—instead, I heard talking about how it was underwhelming and unsatisfying. In fact, even the audience members trying to liven up the film with yelling and jokes couldn't make this thrill-less movie exciting. And that’s how I'd overall describe The Purge: a boring, plot-holed failure of an exploitation film that doesn't live up to what it promises.
P.S. After looking the film up, I found out that Star Trek apparently did an episode with this same idea in 1967—so yeah, just add unoriginal to the list of things wrong with The Purge.
What about the people locked up in prisons? Since no military or police are helping on purge day wouldn't that allow all those prisoners to run free, form a group, and battle out with those who want to kill them? Wouldn't this also mean they’d have to be recaptured once again after the purge finishes (basically re-increasing the crime levels every year this happens)? What about organized crime such as the mob? Seems to me they'd have a fair chance of fighting back and maybe even eliminating some of their own competition legally. What about importation/exportation of drugs and weapons—how does the purge stop that from happening? And where are all these vigilantes getting their weapons from, because selling automatic machine guns doesn't sound like the best action plan towards stopping all crime?
I know I’m way overthinking this simple horror-thriller movie, but the more I think about it, the more it makes no sense (which is exactly what happens when a popcorn film can't keep your interest). And if you're going to promote The Purge for just these reasons then expect some backlash when you don’t deliver. For a film that aims to scare Americans into thinking this is the path we’re taking, it certainly does a low-quality job. I don’t think I heard a single positive comment from the audience as I left the theater—instead, I heard talking about how it was underwhelming and unsatisfying. In fact, even the audience members trying to liven up the film with yelling and jokes couldn't make this thrill-less movie exciting. And that’s how I'd overall describe The Purge: a boring, plot-holed failure of an exploitation film that doesn't live up to what it promises.
P.S. After looking the film up, I found out that Star Trek apparently did an episode with this same idea in 1967—so yeah, just add unoriginal to the list of things wrong with The Purge.