The Purge Review

The Purge is a new home invasion horror movie starring Ethan Hawke. The film takes place in the year 2022 and the U.S has one day called the purge day a year. When this day comes murdering, raping, stealing, etc is legal for 12 hours and all emergency services become unavailable. The idea itself is really cool, but it is completely wasted with how this whole film was executed.

First off the film is a home invasion movie. Some guys get into the house and you know what happens next. I was expecting the movie to be entertaining, but it is completely boring. Nothing really goes on for most of the movie, and when shit (finally) hits the fan... it ends in like 5 minutes. Another negative is that the film is not scary at all. Like not even the jump scares work. There is no tension whatsoever in this film. All the characters are completely stupid, with the exception of Ethan Hawke. His character is actually smart, and Hawke gives a good performance as always.

The film also tries to act as a social allegory. It tries to be a smart film by making us think: if a day like the purge ever existed, would we really kill? The problem is it never really explores this well enough, and certain characters seem bipolar at times. There's a certain character who says that purging is wrong, and in the next scene (literally the next scene) she is completely cool with it to ths point of agreeing to kill, but near the end she is against it again. I really don't know what was going on through the writers mind as he wrote this movie.

The Purge could have been something really special. It takes a really cool idea, one talented actor, and wastes them completely. It was boring, stupid, and not even remotely scary. I hope that the sequel will actually take this great idea, and actually make an interesting film. The whole concept of people being able to kill legally for 12 hours is something very interesting, and could make for a very smart film that could really explore the pros and cons of it, and the psychological aspect of it too. I'm giving The Purge 1/5