The Purge Review

The Purge review.

Ten years ago, we first set foot into the world of The Purge. It might be more accurate to say that we dipped our toe into the world of The Purge. With a dynamite concept that launched a franchise…the original shows off a much more humble beginning.

Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.

The Purge

Directed by James DeMonaco

Written by James De Monaco

Starring Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder and Adelaide Kane

The Purge Review

The Purge is an interesting movie to look back on.  It spawned a franchise that, outside of the central concept, doesn’t really feel much like it.  There is a good reason for that.  While the story of a family trying to survive the annual purge makes for a fine movie…it’s the concept of the purge itself that opens the door for bigger, louder sequels.  It’s a concept that demanded further examination.  Luckily, The Purge was a giant box office success that spawned 4 sequels and a TV series (so far).

Fans of what The Purge has become as a franchise may be surprised by just how small the original film is when they revisit it.  The concept of the purge is laid out in full here…but the focus of the movie is inside of one house…following one family.  Outside of an opening montage of violence…The Purge plays out like a standard home invasion thriller.  The most interesting aspects of the night are happening off screen.  In neighborhoods that don’t look like the one our story is set in.

The Purge is the story of a security salesman named James (Ethan Hawke) and his family.  When the annual purge rolls around…they lock themselves tightly inside of their affluent home and wait for morning.  The purge, you see, is the one night of the year where all crime is legal.  James has made his fortune selling state of the art security to guard against this very night.  When James’ son deactivates the security to help a stranger…things turn deadly. 

While most of the series examines the effect of the purge on communities and society…the original concerns itself with James and his family.  The purge threatens to intrude on their idyllic life.  That isn’t designed to happen.  The elite should be able to protect themselves through their wealth while the purge eliminates society’s undesirables.  Like James’s security system however…no design is flawless.  When the group tracking down the stranger arrive at the family’s doorstep…we find out that nothing is impenetrable.

As this is a low-budget, one setting film…The Purge spends a lot of time dealing atmosphere over action.  The series would become a more in your face product soon enough…but this installment pushes the threat of violence for a long time before the violence comes.  The vigilantes don’t breach the home until an hour into the movie.  It’s, literally, how the story breaks into the third act.  Then we get our promised violence and mayhem.

Everything in The Purge works as intended.  The creeping dread is appropriately dreadful.  The violence is fast and shocking.  James is given an ultimatum to send out the stranger or face the full wrath of the group.  He decides the family will fight…which is what must happen for the story to progress.  Hawke does a fine job navigating a role that isn’t always clear.  His decision to help the stranger and fight off the intruders doesn’t fully feel in character.  Nor does it feel fully earned by his experiences on purge night to that point. 

What it does do, narratively, is to show that James isn’t who he claims to be.  He tells his son he believes in the purge and would take part if he felt the need to.  That proves to be untrue.  He does take up arms and shoot to kill…but not for the reasons he explained it.  His family’s safety can’t push him to allow an innocent man to die at the hands of the wolves at the door…but it does spur him into action to defend the home.  It makes his death more tragic than you’d expect from a character selling faux safety to line his own pockets.  It’s hard to get a read on what James truly believes.  By the end of the movie, it doesn’t matter.

The end of The Purge sees the family’s neighbors save them from the gang only to take the family hostage themselves.  The stranger saves them…but James’s wife Mary (Lena Headey) declares an end to the murdering.  She sits with her neighbors held at gunpoint until a siren sounds at the end of the purge.  The neighbor’s motivation is resentment of James.  He made a fortune selling them security and they feel like the family throws their wealth in their faces.  That’s a decent twist if they had been the ones to kill James.  He’s already dead by the time they arrive.  It’s an odd choice of timing.

The Purge has a killer idea in its annual purge night.  But it isn’t quite clear what to say about it yet.  The last decade has given us plenty of chapters to expand on the best idea in the first film…and find more consistent messaging.  The 2013 original is left in a weird place.  A proof of concept…of sorts.  A movie that shows a small corner of the universe while hinting at a more exciting time to come.  Taken on its own merits…The Purge is a good movie.  At least, a good home invasion movie.  As a Purge movie…it’s not quite ready to make its stand.

Scare Value

The most interesting aspects of The Purge play out in the background. The franchise would go on to great commercial success by turning its attention to it. The original is a good home invasion movie…but its simpler style is drummed out by the noise of the idea. In retrospect, The Purge becomes more interesting as a smaller, more focused installment of the concept than it is as the launching point for what’s to come.

3/5

The Purge Links

Streaming on Peacock

Rent/Buy on VOD from VUDU and Amazon

Buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon

The Purge Trailer

If you enjoyed this review of The Purge, check out another classic movie review: Hereditary or fellow ten-year anniversary member: World War Z