It pays to wait 2 years to see a movie hobbled by public expectations..

Rating: 10/10 (6 September 2015)

I passed on the Purge back when it was first released just from the bad reviews here. Mass public opinion and expectations can do so some weird psychological mind games on decision making. I'm not even sure I can trust online reviews anymore. Over 500 of them and most see this movie as garbage. Do these people have a central nervous system? I just saw it on FX TV channel tonight and I was thoroughly entertained and jumping out of my seat yelling instructions to the characters on how to get away from the bad guys. It was like watching a boxing match. I couldn't sit still.
The whole premise and concept was as intriguing and compelling as the Twilight Zone's "Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" and that episode got a 9 out of 10 IMDb rating. But the Purge was just more socially jarring and violent similar to Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange", but played out in an overly bucolic, laid back American suburb. There's an air of tense foreboding calm that made me nervous.
This movie is tightly paced and moves along quickly with no long drawn out explanations for the reasons for the Purge. They go right into it and make it pretty simple. Humans by nature are violent (more than animals) so give them an outlet. Saves on future war and crime but then who survives and who dies gets into some sticky social class deterministic vs moralistic concepts I personally had never considered until I saw this movie. It's quite disturbing in an unforgiving way with uncomfortable implications for the cause of the recent shootings in the news lately.
Boy I'm glad I waited to see this movie on TV. I really enjoyed it on a whole different level than I expected.