Uninspired pastiche of better movies

Rating: 2/10 (5 January 2014)

The best and most inspired part of this movie was the 2-minute "purge feed" that it began with -- after that it was all downhill. This would have been a great concept for a 28 Days Later style of movie, but instead we got a low-budget one-house film with a nonsense plot and constant silly contrivances, turned farcical with some of the hammiest acting in a mainstream movie that doesn't star Shia LeBouf. It's only remotely compelling to anyone willing to overlook gaping holes to focus on its "message," the one it's endlessly bashing you over the head with. Subtlety is not DeMonaco's thing.
The big names just phoned it in. Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey practically sleepwalked through everything, resigned to making this turd, and they somehow managed to make the gorgeous Headey frumpy and useless. The kids do a fairly good job and might do well in the future, although the daughter is left to appear and disappear randomly. The band of prep kids all seem to be channeling the cast of House of 1000 Corpses with cues from The Strangers, more comic relief than fearsome. The neighbors and boyfriend have all the personality of a wet paper bag.
There's a lot of violence to add some blood and body count, instead of actually making any sense. In fact, nothing makes sense. It's just an unconnected series of sometimes ludicrously bloody vignettes connected by a frame story. Every event is telegraphed long beforehand, everyone gets saved by some deus ex machina, scenes are repeated to ratchet the tension but only end up padding the time, and it's all just taken so seriously that I couldn't stop laughing at each hilariously stupid "twist".
The only reason it got two stars was because at least it generally kept moving and was only 80 minutes. Thanks, DeMonaco, for not wasting too much of my life.