“He was my friend, and you are not.”
When I was younger, my plan for outlawing the Purge was relatively simple. My spouse and myself would dig a bunker in our house, not letting anyone else know about it. Every year, we’d hide down their with our kids and drill it into them to never tell their friends
That, or move to Canada, I guess.
As I watched The Purge for the first time, I realized I made a crucial error in not picking up this movie two years prior! I never knew the OG was set in 2022! Isn’t it funny how sci-fi and dystopia movies always set themselves just a little too close to the present day? This was only nine years after the movie’s release date!
Anyhow! Going into this movie, I was genuinely unsettled by the premise and the freaky masks! I don’t care how ridiculous the setup is if it’ll pay off down the road! (Also, how did the Purge bring unemployment down? How does that make sense?)
I was pleasantly surprised – and slightly impressed – by the blatant classism and racism themes in here. Not only is it explictly stated that poor people are the ones who truly suffer from the Purge, the main conflict of the movie is a group of “educated” white kids hunting down a homeless black man to “cleanse” society! “Things like this are not supposed to happen in this neighborhood.” Sure, Ethan Hawke! (And I love you, but you’re unrecognizable in this one!)
(It’s more than a little funny that we’re shown a world where the entire country is overrun by murderous hordes once a year, and yet this movie is essentially just a home invasion! At least there’s a reason the police never show up, right?)
The family drama in here is a bit done: we have the businessman father, the demure mother, the tech whiz son, the snarky daughter, and said daughter’s insane boyfriend who thinks the one night a year when murder is legal is the best time to confront her disapproving father! And this guy is 18, but Zoey is 15! But “mature for [her] age.” Geez, I think this guy had issues before deciding to use the Purge to try and kill Ethan Hawke!
With Ethan Hawke’s security business, the whole family is way too comfortable just sprawling around their massive house and waiting for the Purge to end. The daughter is even wearing headphones, for crying out loud!! I don’t care if I have the best security on the planet, I’m not kicking my feet up during the Purge!
Getting to the actual plot, where Charlie saves a homeless man by letting him into their house, that’s a decent moral quandary! But it loses teeth fast.
Charlie’s instinctive actions are fine and valid. But this is essentially the trolley problem, where one side of the tracks holds one man and the other has two parents and their young kids. And then the homeless man threatens Zoey with a gun to keep himself from being kicked out, so… it’s not really like he’s completely innocent here, right?
To a degree, I get what the movie is going for with Ethan Hawke and his wife injuring the man and then hurting his wound – we’re supposed to be all “the Purge makes us all embrace our darker, more violent sides!” But I don’t know if “kill the man who had a gun to our daughter’s head or risk our children being brutally murdered” is a real dilemma for most parents! At least the dude eventually has the courtesy to suggest that he sacrifice himself. Obviously, no one should die in this situation, but the parents are viewing this whole situation eerily impartially!
And now the creepy masked killers have made their way inside! (And that blonde lady has no idea how to skip.) This part of the movie had some genuinely tense and stressful scenes, even if I was screaming at the kid to turn off his flashlight! I kept thinking about how I’d add SO many secret rooms to my house if I was in the Purgeverse! I also like this line from my live notes: “You had a gun, they had one axe between both of them and you STILL somehow managed to get even temporarily overpowered.” So long, Ethan Hawke! You put up a decent fight.
While this movie acknowledged the social inequalities that come with the Purge, I was also surprised it halfway brought up sex crimes, with the head killer becoming “interested” (ew ew ew) in Zoey. Despite the circumstances, I’m glad for this mention, because endless murder isn’t the darkest possibility of the Purge.
For the final act of this movie, my live note “Every single neighbor is clinically insane” is a pretty decent summation. It’s one thing for them to all decide it’s worth killing their neighbor because he sold them expensive security measures, but for them to all chant about the glory of the Purge before planning to ritualistically murder a woman and two children? What kind of neighborhood do these people live in?? Was this all discussed at the HOA meeting??
Back when I was a wee little one, I had a habit of looking up horror movie plots on Wikipedia so I could absorb the storyline and (mostly) avoid the terror. The Purge is one pick, and I didn’t remember too much of it – except for the detail that the homeless man rescued in the beginning ended up becoming the family’s savior at the end. And it was that part that drew me to this movie so many years ago. The scene definitely lived up to my expectations!
But… the ending itself, ugh. I get that we’re going for a whole “don’t become the monsters!” message, but I don’t think that properly applies here. In fact, I think this lady has a moral obligation to kill her neighbors! Let me explain.
So, your neighbors were about to kill you and your young children! And this is the Purgeverse, so they can try this all again next year! Not to mention that you already killed a few of them! If you let everyone go, you’re putting your kids in danger! What’s the plan, move to Canada?? I don’t think these people should be able to go wandering around!
Anyhow. My final thoughts on this movie were “damn, I feel so bad for these kids losing their dad at such young ages.” It’s a tad cliché, but the emotions were well delivered. The social commentary, as well, was a welcome surprise. I’m very much looking forward to seeing where this series will lead!
(Also, this CollegeHumor video is essential viewing alongside this franchise. It asks all the questions in the back of your head!)
