Bad.

Rating: 2/10 (10 September 2014)

The Purge has an original concept & had a good marketing campaign (everywhere you looked you saw posters & advertisements). Horror/Thriller films are one of my preferred movie genres, even when horror films have big plot-holes, stupid characters & sometimes wobbly story lines, I still, more often than not, find something to enjoy and take something away from the movie experience. The Purge however was bad from start to finish; I am genuinely struggling to think of one single positive.
1) I was expecting a horror. A horror is designed to scare you, to give you an anxious/nervous feeling when watching or at the very least, make you jump. Did the Purge do any of those 3? No.
2) The characters. More often than not in horror films, there are shallow, idiotic characters that do silly things and make you wonder why they did things they did. In the Purge is this the case? Absolutely. The most irritating, annoying, dumbest characters, acted horrifically by the actors (bar one or two). The son is one of the dumbest characters I have ever had the displeasure of watching. He shuts down the security system to let a homeless man into his home, without telling or asking his parents and without a respectable motive to do so. I do like Ethan Hawke and I do believe that he is not all that bad an actor, but in the Purge he offers very little.
3) The storyline. Initially it was an interesting concept, original and never been done before, 20 minutes in, plot-holes were humongous. The story was boring, incredibly predictable and overly annoying. The Purge may have an interested concept but they should have at least built a decent story to go with it.
4) The 'Bad Guys'. Scary, mysterious, downright twisted, a psychopath with a motive. Does the purge have any of these as its villains? No. The masks of the villains are removed within 30 seconds of them being introduced which killed all suspense and mystery (see 'The Strangers' for how to do it right).
5) Ending. Many horror flicks have controversial endings, opinions are often divided and I can appreciate the difficulty in choosing a way to end a film of this genre. The ending of the Purge, in my opinion, is abysmal. Some people live, some people die, you don't care at all for the people who live and you certainly don't care for those who die. It feels as if they never had any ending thought out and just gave up. It is different than many other endings, but that is not a good thing. Not in the slightest.
The Purge is not suspenseful, it is not creepy, it is not jumpy and it is certainly not Scary. The characters are awful, acting is suspect, ending is dire & the story line is boring & unrealistic. The only thing stopping me giving this a 1/10 is the 85 minute run time. If that is the only positive you can give a movie then it has serious problems.
Avoid. 2/10