A strong concept with weak execution.

Rating: Null/10 (29 August 2016)

Centred on the concept of an annual twelve-hour window in which all crime, including murder, is legal, The Purge is one of those rare franchise starters, like Saw or Final Destination, that takes a seemingly simple scenario which then captivates the imaginations of the movie-going public. What if our lives and our homes were defenceless for one whole night, and worse, what if it was encouraged by the state? What if you couldn't afford to install a high-tech security system to protect your family? What if you were homeless, or in need of emergency medical care when, by law, there was none available?
The Purge fails to do anything other than briefly consider the implications of these issues, and for that it is a massive waste of an opportunity. Although our main characters are an affluent family who have made a small fortune by selling vital security mechanisms for The Purge, the ethics of such are barely argued. What follows instead is a familiar home invasion narrative that borders on nonsensical, as a family of four manage to lose track of one another within a relatively small suburban household as they come under threat from the 'Purgers' threatening to invade their residence.
The core conflict of how a pacifist chooses to act in the face of a life-threatening situation is certainly gripping, but the film subsequently aims to distract you from thinking about it too much. The Purge is a film that has much to say about the politics, economics and morality of such a situation, but mistakenly assumes that the audience would rather ignore them in favour of watching a cliché game of cat and mouse unfold. A damning consequence of this miscalculation is that the drama is then confined to a limited setting while we are left to picture what horrors are most certainly occurring outside, beyond the walls.
Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey portray the social ambiguity of their idyllic married couple well, but by the end they are anticipating the end of The Purge just as eagerly as the audience is anticipating the end of the film.