La noche de la expiación

It's 2022 in America. Unemployment is at 1% and crime is at an all-time low except one night every year. The law allows many forms of crime including even murder in that 12 hour period. James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) sells home security and is having his best year. He has gathered his family (Lena Headey, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane) to wait out the night. Things don't turn out well starting with the daughter's boyfriend. Then the son allows a vagrant to enter their house who is followed by a mob intend on killing that homeless person.

The premise is interesting and original reminding me of Sparta and the Helots. It's certainly a good way to get into a horror movie. However there are a lot of aspects that went uninvestigated in this movie. Everybody has enemies and it's an obvious avenue to go for. For example, he's the best salesman which seems to me to be an obvious reason for other co-workers to kill him. Writer/director James DeMonaco just didn't think through all the possibilities in this world.

The obvious fix is to make the purge be only against the poor and the helpless. There could be rules about harboring the hunted. The family lets in that homeless guy which could make them fair game. I'm willing to not harp on it but I must deduct a point for the mistake.

When the power goes out, the darkness is not a good way to shoot a film. However when the mob gets vehicles which could light up the house, the lighting looks good. All the light and shadows provide great horror opportunities. I wish more of the movie take place in that lighting scheme.

Another missed opportunity is the ticking clock. It could have been a great vehicle for raising the tension. Instead the movie wastes this away by sitting around to run out the clock. It's not the most compelling climax.

It's a great original premise with loads of opportunities. With a few more tweaks, this could be a great horror franchise. It has a built-in morality play. The premise doesn't even need any one particular character to carry it either. This could run for a long time if they put in a few fixes.

From the producers of Paranormal Activity (as is all horror films these days) The Purge tells the story of a near future were crime is at an all time low and unemployment stands at under 1% of the US population, to compensate for one night a year all crime (including murder) is legal for 12 hours allowing society some kind of release.

The film revolves around the Sandin family who are confronted by a group of college students hunting a man on the night of the Purge who the family had allowed into their home after lockdown. The Purgers (lead by Rhys Wakefield) drastically try to break into the family's home causing James (Ethan Hawke) and Mary (Lena Headey) to protect their children from the invaders in order to survive the night.

The main problem with the film is the premise itself, whilst interesting is filled with flaws and holes that just make the whole idea ridiculous. Such as what happens to the serial killers and career criminals of this world? Do they just control their urges to kill or steal for the other 364 days until the next Purge, as well what if someone has a heart attack on the night of The Purge? Is it just a case of bad luck you chose the wrong night to need medical care?

Despite the flaws of the premise, the film repeatedly ignores the possibilities of the premise, instead of exploring the ideas behind the Purge or the events that occur on the night of the Purge from different perspectives and situations. Instead the film settles for a typical home invasion story that although done well, is nothing we haven't seen done in many other films. The Purge in the end seems to only be the premise of this film to stop the age old question of "Why don't they just call the police?" in home invasion films.

To the films credit it is quite subtle, there's a running theme that the Purge is just an excuse for the upper classes to exterminate the poor, driven by all the attackers wearing prep school blazers and the person they are chasing wearing dog tags around his neck. The film also contains some strong performances, especially from Ethan Hawke (Training Day, Lord of War) and Lena Headey (Dredd, Game of Thrones) who carry the film throughout. The film also has a twist near the end which allows the audience to get inside the heads of the people during this night.

That cant be said for the leader of the Purger's played by Rhys Wakefield (Sanctum, Home and Away)whose performance is slightly cringe worthy, hes trying to be psychotic yet in control of the proceedings but it just comes across as a amateur dramatics' version of The Joker. He just never seems like a really threat and just a creepy next door neighbour.

The film also contains some bizarre and just plain weird set pieces, such as the families' son who builds a spy camera on a chard baby doll on the top of a rhino tank from Warhammer 40,000. The thing looks like a demented contraption from Sid's bedroom in Toy Story.

Overall, The Purge is an OK home invasion film, there are moments of suspense and a couple of jump scares are effective. The wasted potential of the premise is the films main downfall which could have lead to a more effective and possible original film then what we got in the end.

The Purge (2013)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Annoying, dumb and eventually cruel film dealing with the one day of the year when America allows you to kill anyone who want without being punished. This "purge" is supported by a security system seller (Ethan Hawke) and his wife (Lena Headey) but during the 12-hour period they find themselves the target of a gang of murderers. THE PURGE pretty much gave away its story during the theatrical trailer and I thought to myself that we were going to get something fresh or something that has a few interesting ideas but just didn't work. Sadly there are some interesting ideas floating around but the screenplay is simply so bad and so clichéd that it pretty much kills anything positive. The biggest problem is that the film is never scary, which is just downright disappointing. Another problem is that the film itself doesn't know what to do with its "free day to kill" idea. It takes a while for the viewer to warm up to this futuristic world where we can kill but as soon as you accept this "law" the screenplay then pulls a quick one and starts to challenge the morals of such a thing. We then get a bunch of political non-sense thrown in just to make us question the whole thing. Why sell a film on an idea and then not know where to get with it? Even more annoying is that this film contains some of the dumbest and most annoying characters in the history of cinema. Yes, the history of cinema. The couple's young son is someone I wanted to be off the screen ASAP. The daughter isn't much better but just wait until the two twists that happen. Both Hawke and Headey give good performances as does the rest of the cast. If you're expecting a horror film then you're going to be disappointed because even though there's quite a bit of violence, for the most part this is nothing more than a rip-off of STRAW DOGS but set in the future with this one "change." Sadly, THE PURGE just never works and in the end you're left with a major disappointment and just a cheap excuse to kill.

I watched this movie against my better judgement. Most of the reviews on IMDb rate this movie somewhere between awful and horrible. I was hoping that maybe they were being too harsh, they were not. I made the mistake of thinking that Lena Headey and Ethan Hawke were both credible actors. (I love Headey as the evil queen in Game of Thrones) whoever wrote her dialog in this mess should be drawn and quartered. By the end of this movie I was actually hoping that the "good guys" would get killed just to keep them from having to suffer this script anymore.

All in all this is a bad movie, don't waste your money or your time watching it. Trust me you'll thank me in the end.

Short and Simple Review by WubsTheFadger

First off, this film could have been amazing. The plot and premise are very original and had a lot of potential. But sadly, the story is full of clichés such as stupid teenage kids, bad decisions, and clueless villains. If they had only made the film in a way that we could see multiple Purge stories, it would have been better. The ending is the probably the best part of the story.

The acting is okay at best. Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey perform the best. Max Burkholder and Adelaide Kane play two of the most annoying, stupid, and idiotic characters I have ever laid eyes on.

The film starts off very slow and continues to have slow pacing until the end.

The blood and gore aspect of the film is very good. This is one of the highest points about the film.

Pros: Very original story, the ending, good acting from Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey, and a good use of blood and gore

Cons: Slow pacing, wasted potential with the story, annoying characters, Max Burkholder and Adelaide Kane and their terrible performance, and a lot of clichés

Overall Rating: 4.3