Such A Novel Idea Wasted On What Turns Into Stock Horror Fare

Rating: 4/10 (5 March 2017)

For its first 30 minutes or so, "The Purge" is one of the most inventive, fresh movies of the entire year. At about that point, however, it is as if director James DeMonaco thought "oh wait...this is supposed to be a horror movie" and thus the creative juices dwindle down into pretty much stock horror fare.
For a basic plot summary, "The Purge" sets the stage of America circa. 2022, where on one night each year all crime (even homicide) is legal. Supposedly, this "simple" government action has led to the lowest levels of unemployment and general violence in history the other 364 days. James Sandin (Ethan Hawke), wife Mary (Lena Headey) and their two children (Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane) plan to ride out the night inside their fortified-shelter home, until a homeless man requesting aid gives their night a completely unexpected twist.
The concept behind "The Purge" truly is an incredible one, and thus contains the backbone of the entire storyline (or, at least, SHOULD). Enough dialogue (in various formats) is given about the event that the viewer will actually be intrigued instead of instantly dismissing the concept as a "gimmick". While watching, you'll actually be thinking through some pretty deep societal messages/themes (gasp...at a horror movie!).
Sadly, once the "Purge" event in the film commences, the movie slowly turns into much more traditional "jump" and "blood" horror movie fare. All those great themes established in the opening sequences are thrown away in favor of chases and contrived scares.
Thus, there are two ways to look at a movie like this. On one hand, it accomplishes a great feat by taking some extraordinary themes of humanity and sticking them in a "scary movie". On the other hand, the film still couldn't be genre-diverse enough to resist going back to the "old standards" of horror in the end and wasting such great development.