The Purge.

With recent blockbusters such as The Great Gatsby, Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness all exceeding the two hour running time it was refreshing to sit down to an eighty-five minute movie. The running time was ideal for a movie such as The Purge and re-affirmed my belief that slasher-horror cinema should rarely extend past ninety minutes. The film was artistically executed and well structured despite growing weaker towards the end and leaving several avenues unexplored. The science fiction sections of the film were blatantly stronger than the horror segments and, despite some original scares and jumps, the film committed several typical horror faux pas. Clichéd characters and glaring plot holes deflated the tension in the last half of the film. It felt as though there was a need for a more complex twist; a twist that I found myself trying to mentally design whilst the film came to a lazy close. The sadistic stranger – who becomes the not-so-friendly face knocking at the Sandin family’s door – seemed like a caricatured version of Michael Pitt’s interpretation of Paul, in Haneke’s remake of his own film Funny Games. 

The biggest error that this film made was bringing in the themes of cult. Instead, there should have been a more realistic exploration of class division. Wealth and the ability to protect one’s self becomes a key theme that The Purge begins to explore. As the film draws to a close any original examination of this issue is forgotten about and ignored. Instead, the film explores politics within and between the upper classes alone. This makes the film feel somewhat tiresome and leaves you feeling deflated after such a promising introduction. The over-explanation of the importance and function of ‘the purge’ also becomes dull and repetitive. Science fiction cinema that explores an alternate utopia is always at the risk of patronising its audience and, here, The Purge makes this exact mistake. Gattaca, coincidently also featuring Ethan Hawke, perfectly portrays and describes a complex society and should stand as an example to films such as The Purge. 

 

Ethan Hawke gives a great performance here as not only the middle class conscience but as the guinea pig upon which the moral and social dilemmas of ‘purging’ are tested. Other characters felt painfully unnecessary and transparent. Complexity was needed in the characters of the neighbours and the Sandin’s two children. Despite its neat execution and precise length, The Purge left its audience asking the questions that the film should have addressed, as well as trying to answer them. The Wicker Man-esque qualities of the film were not well thought out and dampened the overall realism of this vision of a future in which peace is maintained through an annual release of angst and pain. Despite the potential of The Purge, it was ultimately lacking in a conviction of narrative and was damaged by its unhealthy amount of patriotism. It was certainly entertaining, but less horror and more science fiction next time please.