The Purge

Have you ever watched a movie that you thought might actually not be that bad. You've heard the summary, you've seen the trailer, you've seen the first 15 minutes even and it seems to be an okay set up right?

And then it goes just totally wrong?

Yeah that's The Purge

Truth be told, I wanted this movie to succeed. I thought the first 10 minutes of the film were actually a really good set up. Very foreshadowing and allowing of spoilers for the entire movie, but promising.

The movie takes place in a not so distant future where the United States has implemented a 12 hour period in every year where Crime is legal. You can do whatever the hell you want, it just has to be within the time period.

Ethan Hawke's character is a wealthy designer of home security systems for the very 12 hour period of the Purge. Like many wealthy people in this future America, he is able to put his house on total lock down until the period is over. He has a wife, played by Lena Headey, and a daughter and son.

When the Purge begins, they lock down for the night and wait. But their son sees a man in danger and allows him to enter the house. The man disappears into the house and he is soon followed by a group of hunters looking for the man. Hawke's character is given the ultimatum, give up the man who is in their house, or the group will break into the house and kill them all.

Like I said before, the beginning of this movie showed some promise. It had social commentary on how the Purge works for the rich and not for the poor. Not everyone is able to defend themselves the way that Hawke's family can. Furthermore it questions human nature at its core. The question is asked to Hawke and his wife, if they wanted to would they participate in the Purge? There are a lot of people that believe that the system works and only a few don't.

Now that paragraph, as rough as it was, makes the movie sound A LOT more profound than it actually is.

That's mainly attributed to this gentleman to the right. This character is credited as "The Polite Stranger" and he's played by Rhys Wakefield.

Obviously the movie is trying to tap into the fears people have of home invasion. If you have seen the movie, The Strangers, you will know exactly what The Purge was trying to do with this character and his posy.

But Wakefield plays this role in a really odd manner. By his name you can assume he's polite and in some cases that would work for him. The idea is to have him be polite but also a sociopath that turns the gun on his friend at a moments notice if something doesn't go his way (which actually happens) The problem with this character is that the way it was presented in the Purge, it wasn't scary.

Drawing comparison with the Strangers again, look at the masks of the home invaders. They are terrifying. And if they say something, it's in a dazed eerie tone. They also never remove their mask.

Wakefield does. The minute he takes off the mask, the illusion of the unknown is gone.

The masks themselves are kind of scary in the Purge but with the goofy manner of the strangers and the overall oddness of the entire group, it soon was no longer menacing and instead was just silly.

Are there moments in this movie that are scary? Yes? There is one part where the youngest child is in the basement, he hears something in the basement, moves the flashlight over and there's a guy in the mask. But beyond that, the movie is very predictable. It eventually gets to a point where its just an all out brawl between Ethan Hawke and the masked people. Though I enjoyed the fight scenes, it took away from the suspense and fright element in horror movies. A group of masked men and women didn't seem scary anymore.

And then... the neighbors come. I am not joking, the neighbors come in, kill all the bad guys but want to kill the family for themselves. This would be a little freaky if it wasn't totally predictable. And of course they don't die (except Ethan Hawke... for some reason...) because remember the guy that came in the house earlier? Well because they didn't give him to the bad guys, he saves them all. There's a message about no more killing and the movie done...

There's a lot more things that can be said about this movie. The stupid boyfriend wanting to kill Ethan Hawke. The daughter disappearing for some reason, the young boys moral dilemma with the Purge. But by the end of it, none of it matters.

The bad guys die, they throw a half ass moral about killing and the movie is done.

This movie had a lot of potential but it just goes to show you that it's all about execution.

Have you seen the Purge? I want to hear some defense of this movie. Comment below whether you liked it or you hated it. Also what's the scariest movie you've ever seen?