The Purge- Review

Director- James DeMonaco
Running time- 85 minuted
Starring- Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey



Set in the year 2022, America has become a place of prosperity and full employment, but for one night in the year, for a twelve hour period there is an event called 'The Purge', where all crime is legal and services are suspended.

On this one night the film centres around the Sandin family, who live in an affluent upper middle class neighbourhood, Ethan Hawke and Lena Headley give reasonable performances for what they
are given, from the beginning we see that they represent an idealistic family unit, and 'The Purge' is far removed from their everyday reality as they lockdown their home. The tension builds up until a stranger being pursued by a group who want to kill them turns up at the front door.

Circumstances lead this stranger into the house, and it is from here that a lot of the action begins to take place. The problem is that so much of the suspense leads to nothing, while effective what little action there is is few and far between, and over far too quickly. And what begins with a very good villain ends in total disappointment, and we learn nothing of the group's motives as to why they want to kill this person.

There are too many changes of direction in the last third of the film, and none of it ends up making the film any better, by the time it ends it all felt like a 'meh' experience, although the final scene as 'The Purge' comes to an end, and normality is resumed does have a lot of impact.

For a lot of its faults, the film has a lot of original ideas, it conveys the worst in humanity in a crude way, it will keep you engaged throughout, like most thrillers it will keep you on the edge of your seat, and constantly guessing at the back of your head as you're watching. It's just a shame that all ends up being average.

The Purge plays on the uncertain economic climate that the world still finds itself in five years after the banking crisis, but for all that it has going for it, and with a very good build up, the second half of the film just falls flat on its face. 

2.75/5