Needed to be more satirical

Rating: Null/10 (10 August 2014)

The Purge starts with a concept. What if for one night in a year all crime was legal, including pillaging, vandalism, rape and murder. All of it. It's an interesting idea. Naturally it could never happen in real life, but that's not the point. It's the work of fiction to explore the possibilities, even the impossible ones, because they're all reflections of our society, our psyche as humans.
Unfortunately, the execution leaves something to be desired, being really nothing more than an intruder horror drama. A family is locked inside their own house to escape the purging, and when everything doesn't go according to the plan, you can pretty much guess what will happen. I would have liked to see this idea explored on a larger scale, or with more attitude. Now it tries to play it safe, or perhaps too realistically. Like this is supposed to be a warning against this sort of solution.
Then again, all the actors do their jobs very well. Rhys Wakefield is especially amazing as a polite leader of hooligans out to purge for the night. He almost summons back the spirit of Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orage to possess him and bring us back that good old ultra-violence.
The Purge is a decent film. It had the potential to be much more, but what we end up getting has some seriously creepy imagery, the action and the horror both work and it's an interesting idea to mull over for an hour or two. Recommended for horror fans.