Cheap thrills the movie

Rating: 7/10 (7 October 2016)

The Purge follows the story of the Sandin family and their overnight lockdown shenanigans during the 2022 Purge. The Purge is an annual event (in this fictional universe) across the USA in which all criminal activity is legal, which the movie sort of sums up to basically 'you can kill anyone you want without any legal consequences'. There's also no police and no health services available until the purge is over, so basically people are left to die for sure. The Sandins have a top notch security system at home so they should be fine, but suddenly things go awry when 2 intruders enter their home. Can they survive the night?
So first, why the need for this? According to the little info bits here and there, this allows people to reshape society in their own hands, by basically getting rid of people that are the "non- contributors". Or, at least that's the intended political purpose for many. Ultimately each person would tackle the event to their own benefit. It is often mentioned that it is the one night everyone gets to release all their anger, which implies that there's more peace for the rest of the year. Also, this allows the more dominant groups get rid of the weaker groups, which supposedly helps improve the economy and lower crime rate, among other good things that make the country better.
Yeah... I don't know. I mean it's a very ridiculous concept but also it's an intriguing one. I mean I suppose if you concentrate all crime to one day and not even count it as crime, then obviously crime will go down. And if a lot of poor people that can't afford security get killed, then obviously there will be more wealthy people left. But whatever, let's just go with it for now.
The movie was surely entertaining but I have one big problem with it: it just throws you into the action almost right away. There's very little backstory and character development, it literally just does a couple first scenes to tell you 'this is the main guy, this is his wife, this is the boyfriend of the daughter' etc. Since the concept of an annual purge in real life would be a very psychological mess, I was surprised they didn't bother to exploit that for the first half of the movie. By the time the more messed up things happen later, you have very little reason to care for anything. I kinda wish they made us relate more with the people so we actually cared for their survival.
With that said, while I wanted to hate the movie when it ended, I couldn't. In its overly extreme and borderline ridiculous premise, I got some enjoyment of the thing. The movie has the weirdest progression, but it does make you think and question how political ideas can affect and radicalize society. It is a potentially harsh concept that just wasn't used to it's better potential, but I suppose it is an OK non-scary popcorn thriller.