The threat of the house invasion is much more interesting than the invasion itself. Well done.

Rating: 8/10 (19 August 2014)

I am not so keen on home-invasion movies because most of the time it involves a lot of mental and physical torture. That is what withheld me from watching The Purge because I was expecting something like The Strangers. Today I have finally watched it and enjoyed it very much.
The set up is clear: everyone hurries home to lock up well for the annual Purge where (almost) all crimes are allowed, including murder. A 12 hour period for those who feel the need to kill of 'low-lives' or someone they hate or just for the sake of cleansing society from bad seeds James Sandin supports the Purge with his wife Mary and he made quite a living from it by selling security systems. Their daughter is hitting puberty hard and their young son doesn't understand why people would feel the need to murder another in the first place. They lock their home and after the sirens that start the Purge sounds, they are safe inside. At least they think, until the son lets a homeless man who seeks shelter, inside the house and a bunch of freaks come looking for their right to Purge by killing him.
It's not the most mind-blowing script with plot-twists that surprise you until the end. No, it's a genre movie (It's not a horror movie, it is more of a thriller) and what you expect you will get: scares, tension and fights till the death. But it's all put in a nice story where choices have to be made and twist change the position of the leads from victim to hero and back and forth. Those twists I definitely saw coming, but I didn't mind one moment because they were well executed. I liked the end where Mary decides to keep the peace until the Purge is over. Even though you want her to hurt the neighbors so badly, killing them would not be satisfying, because that would not fit her character. Finally she does give us a moment of cheer when the neighbor tries to grab her gun and Mary smashes her head on the table. I couldn't help myself shouting out a big YES and clap my hands. Just in time, cuz seconds later the sirens sound again and the Purge is over and she wouldn't have gotten away with it.
The main actors are good, well cast and stay true to their character. The built-up towards the end is well done, the tension inside the big dark house (because the freaks cut the power) where everyone loses sight of everyone is great and once the freaks enter they don't linger but ruthlessly go for the kill – that's what they are here for. The director easily could have stretched the invasion, but I'm happy he didn't. Well, he added some elements to make the threat towards the invasion much more interesting than the invasion itself. Well done.
Clearly, I thought this was a very enjoyable movie and Lena Headey is starting to become one of my favorite genre-actresses.