Review: The Purge

The Purge
Cert: 15 / 85 mins / Dir. James DeMonaco



There are two films, here. One of them is a fairly taught thriller set in a borderline dystopian near-future, in which a family is forced to defend their home against an escalating series of threats and there are no guarantees as to who (if anyone) is going to make it out alive. The other is a mawkish, contrary morality tale which delights in baiting the viewer down several ethical dead-ends before pulling its spectacles down the bridge of its nose and saying 'Aaah, but do you not SEE?'

I enjoyed the first one.

The Purge is hamstrung, of course, by the fact that the hypothetical 'Purge Day' wouldn't work in reducing crime for the other 364.5 days a year. If anything it'd just increase grudge-bearing which would inevitably spill over outside of the allotted 12-hour murder window. Add to this the clean-up costs for the following days, and it's ridiculous to even think about. Although as I am thinking about it, the main thrust of the film is the legalisation of murder; but the exposition tells us that "all crime is legal". So even fraud, hacking and general financial corruption, then? The kind of thing that would royally fuck over any society irrespective of an on/off date? Good luck with that.

So leaving aside the mechanics of the plot, and the moralising that goes hand-in-hand, it's quite good. Just don't think about it too much.

Oh, and it's always nice to see a remote-controlled spy robot operated by a tech-wiz kid from a secret compartment in the house featured in the first twenty minutes of a film and think 'Oh, I wonder if this will be mentioned again later on..?'



Hmm, largely-ish.



Not exactly, but it did hold my attention throughout.



IMHO, no.



The home-setting of the film makes it ideal for DVD.



No.



At some point.



No.

Ooh, wouldn't it be great, though? But wouldn't it be terrifying? And wouldn't it be wrong? But it'd be great though, wouldn't it? It's SO complicated!

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