well-written and meaningful horror/thriller

Rating: 7/10 (2 October 2013)

If there's one thing I've learned about American reviews of movies, books, and plays it's this: you can't trust any commentary about anything that in any way addresses the issue of social class. It's no coincidence that a society as brainwashed as ours produces and watches so many zombie movies. We can identify with the metaphor in these films and, at least on a subconscious level, understand that what has happened in them is what has already happened to us. Nevertheless, like zombies, we cannot help what we do; most of our brains have been eaten by what we've been indoctrinated to believe and we must eat the brains of others in return, especially if they are still filled with any questions or critical views concerning social class and poverty. In the case of movie reviews, the vast majority of Americans will not simply bash a film for making a statement about social class, but be so conniving and ignorant of their own mindlessness as to suggest that this statement was the film's only admirable quality. Many reviews of the "The Purge" serve as perfect examples of such connivance and ignorance. While perhaps no masterpiece, the film is easily far better than most American horror movies, including many which have been given rave reviews. The narrative, for example, is both focused and meaningful. The film examines a family, the father of which has become wealthy and provided abundantly for his wife and children, i.e., has achieved the American dream, by the exploiting the fears of Americans during a time when all crime is permitted for one night each year. But this dream turns into a nightmare during a particular purge in which the son allows a homeless man to take shelter in their home, which is excessively guarded by the same type of security system that the father has profited from. This act of morality incurs the wrath of the family's upper class neighbors, who not only hunt down those who cannot afford to protect themselves, i.e., the poor, but have grown jealous of the father's financial success. That which the father created for prosperity and protection suddenly becomes an entrapment and the greatest threat to their well being. These events and characters are not only meaningfully tied together but present a metaphor of society that is just as familiar to Americans as the zombie genre. Unfortunately, however, the familiarity with the society presented in "The Purge" is of a kind that severely aggravates those who both choose and try to convince others to choose to ignore anything that might help to explain why it is that they have turned into zombies.