In which the Purge franchise fails to envision an election scenario that is actually scarier than real life.
The Purge is a horror franchise that has subsisted almost entirely on its premise. The idea of our government allowing a single, consequence-free night in which any law can be broken without repercussion is an elegantly simple yet captivating concept for a movie. It’s also monumentally stupid, which is why the first two entries didn’t spend a lot of time on the political backstory of how such a thing came to pass, or how it is tolerated, nay embraced, by any type of modern civilization. They get right down to business in telling us a simple home invasion story, and a simple escort mission story, where the Purge is just window-dressing. That’s an ultimately dissatisfying way of dealing with the high concept hook that got everyone into the theaters to begin with, but it does allow the filmmakers to sidestep all of the problematic elements of such a story. I didn’t love either of the first two movies, but they were fine enough that I kept watching the dumb things. In the third installment, Election Year, those problems come rearing their ugly heads, and there are no satisfying answers to be found.
Senator Charlie Roan is running for president of America on an anti-Purge platform. See, she witnessed her whole family tortured and murdered on Purge night when she was a girl, and that trauma has driven her into politics in order to make a change. Her reasoning? That subjecting citizens to rape, murder and all other types of physical violence, while simultaneously denying them any form of medical aid for 12 hours is morally indefensible and tantamount to crimes against humanity? No. It’s that the government is disproportionately affecting the poor with their crimes against humanity. If those darn one-percenters were being disemboweled and set on fire in the streets alongside everybody else, then it would be fair. The New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) have positioned their candidate against Charlie (and he’s a minister because The Purge isn’t afraid of taking on religious straw men any more than it’s afraid of taking on wealthy straw men), but the polls seem about even, so they intend take matters into their own hands. Why, you may ask? Because they need the Purge to continue so they don’t have to pay welfare to all the poors that get exterminated during it every year, duh! On Purge night, they send an assassination squad of neo-nazis (you know, in case you’re still confused about who’s on the right side of this issue) to purge the crap out of the senator, but her loyal body guard, Leo, enables her escape. They run into a shop owner, his assistant and their vigilante ambulance driver friend who agree to help keep Charlie safe throughout the night. Because when the shadowy cabal that runs the government sends a highly trained assassination squad to kill you, they would only dare to do it during the Purge. They wouldn’t want to break any laws.
I’m not confident that the central idea behind The Purge could be explored in any logical fashion. By its nature, it posits that the country is populated by literally millions of sociopaths who are simply waiting for permission to unleash incredible atrocities on the rest of us. I’m pretty sure sociopathic tendencies don’t work that way. It’s an important point that these crimes are all violent ends unto themselves. What about crimes that have a tangible benefit that is not specific to the psychotically violent? If the Purge were enacted, I actually would expect a big increase of looting, robbery and theft, which would stunt the economy in exactly the opposite way that the film posits the Purge is good for the economy. Hell, more lasting damage would be done by cyber-criminals on amnesty day than all of the mask-wielding butchers combined. If you did intend to explore the Purge intelligently, however, you would have to have at least a nominal grasp on human psychology, politics and economics, none of which appear to be in the filmmakers’ wheelhouse. What does appear to be in their wheelhouse, and really their primary concern, is coming up with cool visuals for the trailer. Vigilante ambulance driver’s ambulance can’t turn a corner without stumbling upon some 3-second tableaux that looks like a Halloween party on acid mixed with The Warriors. I haven’t watched the trailer, but I bet it looks pretty cool (it’s embedded below, in case you’re curious.)
Anyway, this movie is dumb. Dumber than the other dumb movies in this dumb franchise, and I don’t intend on sticking around to see how the next inevitable installment lowers the bar.
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