I loathed the first. The first movie, mind you, not The First Purge. That was the fourth movie.
I gave The Purge only 1.5 stars on Letterboxd, and ranked it #122 out of 128 films I saw in 2013. It might have been worse had I not given the film points for introducing a really fertile concept into the cinematic landscape. I don't remember a huge number of the details. But I do remember I couldn't get past the idea that a young man would use the excuse of the purge to try to kill his girlfriend's father (Ethan Hawke). That helps ingratiate you to your girlfriend how, exactly?
It was three years until I saw my next Purge movie, which was not the next Purge movie. I skipped over The Purge: Anarchy in 2014 as the bad taste of The Purge was still in my mouth. But by 2016 I had heard some encouraging things about The Purge: Election Year, though I still would have preferred to see the movies in sequence. What caused me to break the sequence was standing at a video kiosk I had walked 15 minutes to reach during my lunch hour, but not finding the movie I had expected to find. I was unwilling to come away empty-handed so Election Year it was.
You may remember how this one turned out for me. The movie ended up in my top ten for the year as it prompted an emotional breakdown during one scene, seeing as how I watched it about two weeks after the actual election. 4.5 stars on Letterboxd.
It was another 3+ years until my next Purge movie, which was the next Purge movie this time. Though I guess my newfound Purge love had died down enough that I failed to see The First Purge during the year of its release (2019) in order to rank it with that year's movies. I did watch it earlier this year, and was again captivated by the left wing vs. right wing politics that have increasingly been central to the series as it has gone along. I've actually written about The First Purge twice (here and here). Four stars on Letterboxd.
As I now liked -- strongly liked -- 67% of the Purge movies I'd seen, it was about time to finally get to The Purge: Anarchy. You know, that oh-so-common 1-3-4-2 sequence to watching the movies in a (so far) four-movie franchise. But it took a suggestion from my wife to actually get it on the docket.
We were scrolling through the stunningly large collection of horror movies on Amazon when my wife said "Oooh!" upon seeing The Purge: Anarchy. All four of the movies are available for streaming on Amazon, so I think it was just a coincidence that she happened to stumble upon the one that would correctly be the next in the sequence for her. The titles don't give away their sequence, and my wife does not keep track of things like the order of movies in series she doesn't pay attention to.
She immediately got the idea to watch it on Halloween, which I thought was sort of funny as I don't really think of these as straight horror movies. They are more like social commentaries that use some of the iconography of horror. But as she has become increasingly interested in TV rather than my beloved movies, I'm not one to shut down any suggestion she makes, especially since I hadn't yet seen this. (But likely would have acquiesed to watching either of the later two movies as well, given how much I like them, and may on some future date, Halloween or otherwise.)
Given my injection of new enthusiasm for this series, I had hoped to like The Purge: Anarchy more. However, it ended up with only two stars on Letterboxd.
It starts out auspiciously enough, introducing the characters as they prepare for where they're supposed to be before the annual 12-hour window of lawlessness begins. During this time we are also introduced to a chilling gang of masked vigilantes, one of whom wears a white mask with the word GOD scrawled on the forehead. These appeared to be people of color, which worried me a little bit, but I wanted to see where it went.
Well, where it went with these characters kind of symbolizes the disappointing downturn of the movie on the whole. Yes, there are people of color under these masks -- and the one wearing the GOD mask was, surprise surprise, Lakeith Stanfield, before most of us would have known who he was. The good news? They are not the murderous psychopaths that the opening of the movie makes them seem. The bad news? They are trying to gather innocent citizens caught out on the streets and deliver them to the right-wing rich leaders of the NFFA (New Founding Fathers of America), for a hunt. Yes, Stanfield's character says they are really in it just for the money.
So yeah, I see why a friend of mine thinks the Purge series is racist -- even if the later movies work to correct that impression.
This movie also has an equivalent to the bizarre attempt by Ethan Hawke's potential future son-in-law to kill him. In this movie a woman chooses the occasion of the purge to kill her own sister for sleeping with her husband. What's weirder, she does it at 2:30 in the morning, after the purge has already been going for more than seven hours. First of all, she wouldn't kill her own sister. Disown her and never speak to her again, maybe, but kill her? Secondly, if she was really that upset, you'd figure it would be a crime of passion that would occur during normal times, not some kind of premeditated attempt to get away with it on purge day -- and in front of the rest of her family members as well.
I could go through more details, but you get the idea. There's some cool stuff -- like, I liked the idea of an 18-wheeler driving around with a gatling gun opening fire on people -- but overall, the series still had not found its eventual sense of purpose by this second entry.
I also quibble with that title. What does it even mean? The subtitle Anarchy suggests that something outside the bounds of a normal purge occurs here, but really, that doesn't seem to be the case. Isn't every purge rather anarchic in nature? At one point there's a warning that someone is using a weapon that's at a higher grade than approved for the purge, and that this person will be prosecuted, but wouldn't that happen every purge? The title for this movie could have just as easily been Purge: Another Purge or Purge: Quite Purge-like, All Told.
The interesting thing about the variable quality of this series -- earning from me 1.5 stars, 4.5 stars, 4 stars and 2 stars -- is that the first three films all have the same director, and all four have the same writer. That man is James DeMonaco, and at least you can say he's getting better at it as he goes along. Gerard McMurry -- a person of color, you will note -- directed The First Purge, which may be the best of the four in objective terms. It's hard for me to say because I don't expect Election Year would have had the same impression on me had I not been an emotional mess over the election of Donald Trump.
I do think that it would be worth going back to watch the original Purge. Some series do take time to find their footing, but I think you are more likely to find that in a TV series than a movie franchise. Usually you only get to make the franchise because the first is good, or at least, the best of the bunch. It could be that my new perspective on the series will help with my feelings about The Purge ... if I ever want to give it that chance.
In the meantime, The Forever Purge is scheduled to come out in 2021, making this series an even five. (IMDB says it's the "fifth and final installment," but I'll believe that when I see it.)
Hope whatever you're watching on Halloween does the trick for you. Happy Halloween!
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