THE PURGE (2013): 7 Critical Questions

Genre — Horror, Thriller

Cast — Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Adelaide Kane, Max Burkholder

Director — James DeMonaco

Budget — 3 000 000 USD

Source: https://imgur.com/

1. What’s the story?

United States of America have introduced a new way to get rid of crime and reduce unemployment — for 12 hours every year there are no laws and people can steal, kill, rape and so on to “get rid of the suppressed anger and deeper urge for violence”. The main focus is on the Sandin Family. James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) sells security systems that are made for the purge nights, so everything should be fine. Well, no — he also has a stupid son Charlie (Max Burkholder), who does his best to get everyone killed with his brainless decisions. They will have to start defending their home and get their hands (and souls) dirty.

2. What’s special about the film?

The most intriguing is of course the main idea: for one night there are basically no Iaws. So what will people do with that freedom? This sets a ground for amazing psychological action thriller, with mind-blowing (read: head-blowing with shotguns) study of human nature in an environment of anarchy. Having said that, all that I got was a movie irritatingly not interesting, almost boring. For the whole movie I was thinking: man…