The Purge

News, Reviews & Features

The First Purge

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 6th July 2018

The Purge is an odd, scrappy sort of franchise that's stumbled clumsily into the zeitgeist without so much as taking its mask off. The first movie, released in 2013 in the middle of the Obama administration, was a high concept home invasion thriller that preyed on the fears of suburban white folk, starring Ethan Hawke, the most Caucasian man in the observable universe. Now, after five years, two sequels and one particularly flatulent Trump, The Purge has flipped its racial politics completely: starring an almost total African-American cast, prequel The First Purge has aligned itself with black fears of a government out to extinguish them. It’s quite the position for a low-budget horror movie to take (studio Blumhouse were also behind Get Out, another racially charged genre picture that blew up), but this prequel never quite fulfills its brief of winding back the clock to ask why America felt the urge to purge in the first place.

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The Purge: Election Year

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 17th August 2016

You may think that The Purge: Election Year has been smart in piggybacking the US electoral campaign, but in actual fact, it suffers in comparison to current real world politics: in case you needed reminding, one of America's presidential candidates has already advocated the assassination of his rival and has claimed that he could shoot someone dead in the street and still not lose any voters. Donald Trump's car crash campaign makes legalised murder look pretty tame in comparison, leaving The Purge: Election Year struggling to stay relevant: if the first Purge movie was a high concept in search of a budget to match and sequel Anarchy was a satisfying exploration of that world, Election Year takes the concept to its ludicrous and illogical extremes.

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The Purge: Anarchy

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 18th July 2014

The first Purge movie had a fantastic concept: that sometime in the near future, in order to pacify the populace for the rest of the year, all crime including murder would be legal for one night only. The biggest crime, however, was just how wasted the concept was on a home invasion storyline that barely ventured outside of Ethan Hawke's front door. Thankfully, this year's sequel The Purge: Anarchy goes some way into exploring that ridiculous concept to a more satisfying degree, and in pulling back to a wider angle to see the effect of The Purge on a whole city instead of a single household, it pulls off a pretty good impression of The Warriors to boot. It's time to come out to pla-aaay...

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The Purge: Anarchy in the UK

Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 17th July 2014

The Purge: Anarchy - known in some international territories as 'American Nightmare 2' - is released in cinemas next week, continuing to explore the best high concept horror premise in years: what if, in order to reduce crime all year round, all crime including murder was legal for one night only? It's a very American thing, having to specify that murder was included, because if there was a UK version of The Purge, the crimes the British public would commit would be small and twatty. Crimes like these...

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