The Purge Disappoints Crowd

As per usual, the movie trailer was better than the movie. The Purge is set in 2022, where crime and unemployment is at an all time low and the “new generation” forefathers allow for an annual 12-hour period where all crime is legal called “The Purge”. During that 12 hour span, all emergency services are cut off becoming a massive game of survival of the fittest.

The Purge lacked greatly in character development and plot. The characters were uninteresting frustrating throughout the entire movie. The movie has stereotypical characters of a horror movie; there was the rebellious private school daughter with her over aged boyfriend, who has a father that is a typical multi-millionaire businessman who sells home alarm systems designed specifically for The Purge, the idiotic and hopeless son who lets a random stranger in their home during the Purge causing the entire plotline to begin, then finally, the mother is a simple character that does show some development during the movie.

The preppy private school students and unexpected neighbors served as the antagonists throughout the film.The private school students were extremely creepy because even though they were demonic killers that found great pleasure in “purging”, the group came off to be angelic and childish as they skipped down the hallways with weapons in hand destroying everything.

Every jump scare was anticipated all the way from the beginning of the scene. Being a typical horror movie watcher, I could sense the scare all the way from the back row. The eerie music, the quick turns and the one angle view. All mixed up together produced lame scares.

Beside the fact the movie was predictable and not at all scary, the underlying theme was universal. The family does support the purge and all of the good that comes out of it, but this year for the first time, they had to participate in order to survive. The movie was based around Darwin’s idea of survival of the fittest. People began to strive for economic excellence to simply protect themselves for one 12-hour period.

The whole idea of this type of America is what made the movie intriguing. The way the movie interpreted and presented this world was boring. Possibly a use of many point of views or instead of focusing on horror they should have used more suspense and character development.

This movie deserves a C+.