The Purge is a 2013 horror film about a wealthy family who are held hostage for harboring the target of a murderous syndicate during the Purge, a 12-hour period in which any and all crime is legal. It spawned three sequels.
If you were given a night for your darkest fantasies without the fear of punishment what would you do? Take out those annoying neighbour who keep leaving trash on your lawn? Hunt that boss who’s always dogging you? Or would you just try and get through the night while the world around you loses its collective mind? However you choose to spend your Purge night the founding fathers have ensured the choice is yours, after all its for the good of the society and the government would never give such lenancy if it wasn’t would they?
While on the surface, James DeMonaco’s Purge saga might seem like another modern horror franchise built around the intriguing concept that one night a year all crime is legal, which, much like the idea proposed in Indecent Proposal of course, makes you question yourself about what you would do if you could do anything without consequence. Of course in terms of movie tourism what really makes this franchise stand out from the likes of Saw and Paranormal Activity is that rather than try and stretch out material that arguably is limited to begin with, The Purge has – over the course of three films – taken a note from the series structure of The Wire where each season focuses on a different aspect of the city (The High Rises, The Docks, School and Media). DeMonaco has essentially done the same with his trilogy and its tour through the near future vision of 2022 America.
Starting off in the cosy and deceptive safety of the Suburbs, our first introduction to this alternative future in The Purge sees society in a weird sense of normality with crime at an all-time low, unemployment at 1% and society generally seemingly on the up and up, all thanks to the one night a year where everyone has the freedom to get out their murderous tendencies as we see the friendly neighbours sharpening blades in the yard or heading out on the hunt for victims. It has such a strong sense of normality to it that it’s commented on as if they are heading out on a routine fishing trip.
The first film a thinly veiled home invasion thriller plotted around the Sandin family, who are able to hide out during the Purge in their heavily secured home thanks to father James’ (Ethan Hawke) company. They specialise in keeping the affluent safe during Purge night with their range of high tech security systems. While it might serve to establish the setup, it really didn’t help provide a sense of danger had it not been for the youngest family member Charlie (Max Burkholder) deactivating the system to provide sanctuary to a potential victim being hunted by a group of masked privileged kids.
It’s worth noting at this point that masks are extremely popular within this world even though you can commit crime without fear of punishment. Still, we see many participants of the Purge donning masks and costumes almost as if they are tapping into an ultra violent alter-ego or superhero personality. These costumes even reflect the mood of that year’s Purge as seen especially by the third film whose election year sees participants favouring twisted takes on Abraham Lincoln and the Statue of Liberty. However it would seem that the more normal a mask, such as the smile masks of the first film, the closer to someone’s personality these violent tendencies lie.
With The Purge: Anarchy the focus now moves to the city and here there is finally a real element of danger, especially when we are introduced to two groups left on the streets without any kind of shelter from the chaos erupting on the streets. The city not only marks a change of location but also an attitude as here the downtrodden working class use the Purge as a release or possibly a way to get back at that annoying boss. As such, the violence of the city is a lot more primal and unrestrained, and with no expensive security systems to hide behind, your own home can be just as dangerous a place as the streets.
Having established the rules for this world he is crafting with the first film, DeMonaco with the second film also starts to fill in many of the smaller elements to the world, in particular how the Purge goes a lot deeper than people going crazy and running wild on the streets. The first of these seeing the rich buying the poor as volunteer victims whose families are in turn compensated for members being sacrifice. Meanwhile, the rich get to participate without having to risk going outside. This finance for flesh of course does not stop here as our ragtag band of survivors are collected by a gang to sold in an auction for the privileged to hunt them for sport and entertainment. This line between the rich and the poor is only further emphasised the closer you look as not only are the rich buying and hunting the poor for sport but it’s revealed that the Purge is really a way to keep the poor numbers down with the founding fathers more than content to despatch their own death squads to boost the numbers when it becomes clear that more purgers are interested in settling grudges than mass murder.
Here we also have the key piece that allows DeMonaco to move the focus once more as we finish with the government. However, while it might only seem that this interest in exploring the political aspects of this world come with the final entry, from the second film we can already see an uprising. There, within the lower classes spark an anti-purge resistance group lead by the militant Carmelo Jones, who can see that the Purge is not quite the “for the good of all humanity” movement that the Founding Fathers would have you believe. That’s especially so when it leaves the poorest members of society with no real chance of surviving the night against the rich. Meanwhile, it’s amusing knowing that government officials “Rating 10 or higher” must remain unharmed, after all you don’t want the masses to go for the most obvious target though it would seem that bankers don’t meet this criteria judging the sight of a lynched banker we see stung up in Anarchy.
The Purge: Election Year saw riots at the end of the film in the wake of progressive political candidate Charlene “Charlie” Roane surviving the Purge night to be able to run against the established Founding Fathers. We should also note – in a film that seems intent on pandering to the political climate at the time – sees the biggest powers for change come via a female government nominee and a black revolution leader against a government made up of predominantly older white males, who push the right to Purge as an act of patriotism.
Ultimately, The Purge is a concept that works as a fun ‘what if?’ scenario but despite the tweaks and the benefit of DeMonaco expanding the canvas with each film than just trying to sell us the first film with a new hat, it is still a concept that soon falls apart once you start digging deeper. After all, with all emergency services suspended for a 12-hour period, what will stop fires from raging out of control, not to mention the massive economic strain of dealing with the aftermath of a Purge night. Giving people complete freedom means you can’t seriously expect them to demonstrate any kind of restraint. However, in terms of world building, The Purge is certainly one of the more standout modern horror franchises. It would be interesting to see how a Purge night played out in a rural setting, which for now is left to the realms of fan fiction.