As you may know, I’m not a fan of horror franchises. Each sequel seems less innovative; each script more color-by-numbers. However, as annual horror goes, I find The Purge franchise far better than say, the Paranormal Activity franchise (Day 3: [deadpan] “gosh. How did the door open by itself?” [/deadpan]) or the Saw franchise (“hello, Cindy, for the crime of jaywalking, I have installed a traffic light in your abdomen; you have 60 seconds to remove it before it turns green.”)
I daresay The Purge franchise has actually tried to grow. The Purge: Election Year, for instance, is a much more considered reflection on the effects of an actual purge (i.e. the political battle between the “pro-Purge” and “anti-Purge” camps). This seems far more realistic in context as any country with a Purge, a dedicated period of time in which all crime was legal, would spend over 95% of its judicial energy battling Purge-related issues.
Don’t get me wrong; this franchise is still bad. For instance, the idea that The Purge is an economic boon is a joke. It seems obvious to even the most casual observer that the entire United States economy would revolve around undoing the damage from the previous year’s Purge. Each individual Purge would be hands-down worse, damage-wise, than 9/11. How quickly did we recover from that? The only people who would benefit from The Purge are opportunists, sociopaths and interior decorators.
This particular Purge pits Presidential foes head-to-head — the religious zealot and champion-for-wealthy-sadists Minister Edwidge Owens (Kyle Secor) against former Purge victim and peacenik Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), begging the question, “who would follow a guy named ‘Edwidge?’ “ As in the world it parallels, violence is stronger than peace; the New Founding Fathers of America – a thinly veiled take on the NRA—have decided on Purge night that Roan has to go. And this year, we’re told, all bets are off – no figures are immune from purgement. Wait. Was this a thing before? Of course it wasn’t.
Vote wisely electorate, for while one faction is pushing Purge, the other plans are more insidious: more Real Housewives “reality” TV.
It bugged me that this version introduced “Purge Tourists,” foreigners who fly to the United States for the sole purpose of purging. It seems obvious to me how common the opposite would be true: the first thing anyone with means would do is liquidate all valuables and get the Hell out of the country on Purge Day. What does the country do with its criminals during this time, anyway? Literally nobody would be caught dead in a cage on a day when all crime is legal.
I’m sorry, there was an 
actual movie here. Senator Roan’s fortress is easily, almost embarrassingly so – that’s some future Secret Service you got there, compromised, leaving she and her head of security (Frank Grillo) on the streets too early and too vulnerable. Meanwhile, small business owner Joe (Mykelti Williamson) can’t afford Purge insurance, so he has to defend his cheap-ass convenience store from Hell-beasts, the latter pissed off because they couldn’t shoplift effectively the day before. Insurance? For the price of one candy bar, you could have made sure your property’s biggest threat was alleviated. Maybe alternative universe candy is really expensive.
The Purge: Election Day did a much better job than its predecessors in identifying exactly who would relish The Purge and why. While action-wise, it is essentially the same film as The Purge: Anarchy, the considerations won me over. I cared enough for the folks fighting to end The Purge enough to want to see how it all turned out. There is great irony in understanding that problems of excessive violence are only “solved” in the short term with violence, and this edition of The Purge knows that far better than its predecessors.
♪I can see him clearly on the circuit cam
In a civil country, he’d be on the lam
Sundown, I better take care
If I find someone creepin up my back stairs
Sometimes, I don’t have a car
And that’s why I’m decked out in all Kevlar
She’s been lookin’ like the devil had a kid by Cher
If I blew her away won’t nobody care
Sundown, I better stay put
If the bastards are all approachin’ here by foot
Sometimes, I wonder what sin
Makes The Purge any worse off than the world we live in♫
Rated R, 105 Minutes
D: James DeMonaco
W: James DeMonaco
Genre: Our screwed future
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: People secretly hoping for a real life Purge
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: People who see the Purge metaphor as hardly a stretch
♪ Parody inspired by “Sundown”
