The Purge (2013)
Directed by James DeMonaco
Given the country's overcrowded prisons, the U.S. government begins to allow 12-hour periods of time in which all illegal activity is legal. During one of these free-for-alls, a family must protect themselves from a home invasion.
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Part of the story brings to mind The Handmaid's Tale and another part echoes some of the themes in La Zona , a hard-hitting Mexican film about the violence that erupts between the haves and the have-nots when the poor are given the shaft in order to protect the privileges of the rich and the powerful.
What should be a taut thriller stretches into an overextended slog with periodic scolding lectures, an exercise in metaphor akin to Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” or Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, but with far less faith in its audience.
And it reminds me, too, of The Handmaid’s Tale — The Purge is to American attitudes about violence and public safety what that other film was to the nation’s attitudes about women’s sexuality.
Rather, the film recalls the broad-strokes surrealism of a Shirley Jackson story, like that high-school standby “ The Lottery .”
Unlike Shirley Jackson, whose classic short story “The Lottery” was an obvious inspiration, writer-director James DeMonaco overemphasizes his violent shocker’s political content (“Things like this are not supposed to happen in our neighborhood!”
James DeMonaco’s The Purge has a great short-story concept, the kind that would fuel a nice 10- to 12-page shocker in which we observe what we think is an ordinary day only to slowly discover that there is something horrible about to take place (think Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”).
What should be a taut thriller stretches into an overextended slog with periodic scolding lectures, an exercise in metaphor akin to Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” or Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, but with far less faith in its audience.
Enough of them have read Shirley Jackson's horror story "The Lottery" to devise an annual day of shocking ritual to solve America's problems with poverty, violence and homelessness.
Writer-director James DeMonaco clearly hopes to make a significant moral statement on the level of Shirley Jackson’s literary masterpiece The Lottery.
There are strong echoes of “A Clockwork Orange,” “Halloween,” and even “The Terminator” – all great films to mimic – but aside from its high concept, “The Purge” utterly fails to make a name for itself.
Soon a band of marauding preppies show up on the doorstep, cavorting with cleavers while their leader (Rhys Wakefield) does his damnedest to channel Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange.
That members of the bloodthirsty mob wear masks seems to have less to do with the rules of the movie (after all, their activities are temporarily legal) than with writer-director James DeMonaco’s desire to pay homage to “A Clockwork Orange’’ — as well as well as a raft of other, more effective movies ranging from “Straw Dogs’’ to “Funny Games.’’
Things become more complicated when a number of Purge revelers (led by a menacingly smiling Rhys Wakefield who'd make Alex from "A Clockwork Orange" proud) arrive at the house in full creep-out mode, including wearing exaggerated masks, wielding all sorts of weapons and being quite desirous of having their escaped "rabbit" (the stranger the boy let in) returned to them for the pleasure of their hunt.
It’s a startling idea—one that, if you think about it too much, is pretty much untenable, but on first glance carries a powerful philosophical charge given that it rests on the unsettling notion that human violence is inherent and therefore must be indulged in some way at some time (in this respect, it has much thematically in common with A Clockwork Orange, which suggested the futility and even immorality of eradicating violence).
It also unashamedly cribs from more disturbing films like Straw Dogs , Funny Games and A Clockwork Orange.
What follows is a mix of Sam Peckinpah's classic "Straw Dogs" and Michael Haneke's two "Funny Games" films, as the mild-mannered Sandins must make difficult choices and tap into their inner animals.
Lifting ideas from “Funny Games,” Sam Peckinpah’s classic “Straw Dogs” and apparently an original TV episode of “Star Trek,” “The Purge” also features a wounded black man (Edwin Hodge) Charlie allows into the Sandin house when he begs for help and “Purgers” in masks recalling the “V for Vendetta” face appear, led by a fellow who resembles Heath Ledger (Aussie Rhys Wakefield).
Unlike, for example, Sam Peckinpah’s masterful Straw Dogs (1971), DeMonaco doesn’t spend enough time with the characters pre-Purge to give us much insight beyond the bare necessities, so their eventual devolution into primordial self-protection feels more like genre machinations than psychological intrigue.
DeMonaco has spoken of his debt to Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs and John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, the latter providing Hawke with a star vehicle via the DeMonaco-scripted 2005 remake.
Like Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs," "The Purge" challenges liberal pacifism by daring us not to get wrapped up in its demented revenge plot.
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The suburban-insecurity theme also stirs memories of David Fincher's Panic Room, Jonathan Kaplan's Unlawful Entry and even Neil Labute's Lakeview Terrace; the barely concealed bloodlust of the bourgeoisie recalls The Last House on the Left; while the idea of state-sanctioned, carefully contained mayhem was executed on a grander scale in The Hunger Games and Rollerball.
It’s neither as entertaining as David Fincher’s Panic Room, nor as viscerally terrifying as Bryan Bertino’s claustrophobic The Strangers.
He’s put just enough thought into the script to get his home-invasion-on-steroids plot — it’s “Panic Room” meets “The Hunger Games”! — under way.
I did have some logistical issues with the pic (such as why the family waits until nearly the last minute before activating and raising their shields, not to mention why there's no fortified safe room in the house in case of a system failure or breach) and realize that "Panic Room" essentially told the same sort of basic tale more effectively more than a decade ago.
Here’s what The Purge isn’t: It’s not a nerdy, obsessive detailing of security systems and how they gradually break down, so don’t expect Panic Room.
The promising premise of "The Purge" quickly turns into "Straw Dogs" meets "Panic Room".
Their leader—played by Rhys Wakefield, channeling Michael Pitt in Funny Games —offers Hawke a deal: If the family hands over Hodge, the Purgers will leave them alone; if they don’t, they’ll have no choice but to break into the house and kill everyone inside.
What follows is a mix of Sam Peckinpah's classic "Straw Dogs" and Michael Haneke's two "Funny Games" films, as the mild-mannered Sandins must make difficult choices and tap into their inner animals.
The tension is well sustained and the film is an effective, predictable cross between Assault on Precinct 13 (the remake of which DeMonaco scripted) and Funny Games (the fair-haired preppy leader of the sinister besiegers is a dead ringer for one of the psychopathic kids in Michael Haneke's film).
And then, the plot finally decides to begin: the gang hunting the wounded man arrives at the Sandin house, and the very articulate young man leading them (Tony Oller, who I don't suppose was cast entirely because of his uncanny resemblance to Brady Corbet, of the American Funny Games , though it surely didn't hurt) informs the family that if they don't turn out the refuge, all the security systems in the world won't stop hell from raining down on them.
But by far the worst performances, however, come from Wakefield, who should have recognized that what he’s doing was already satirized by Michael Haneke in “Funny Games,” and by Arija Barekis as a suspiciously solicitous neighbor.
Like Michael Haneke with Funny Games, DeMonaco (Staten Island) seems adamant about making sure people experience and interpret his movie the correct way, taking in the full symbolic heft of his thoughts on economic disparity, and not getting too much visceral enjoyment out of the action.
The baddies carrying out their siege on the heroes’ house wear creepy masks and tend to pop up in unexpected places, which brings to mind 2008’s The Strangers, another home-invasion thriller that was far scarier, less self-important and had the courage of its convictions.
Home Alone crosses paths with The Strangers and, of all things, Gareth Evans’ The Raid in writer-director James DeMonaco’s The Purge, a despicable, ugly and valueless exercise in hate, that purges all potential out of its interesting, original concept.
These neighbors wear scary masks just like the ones donned by the twisted homicidal home invaders in 2008's "The Strangers."
It doesn’t help that the film appears to be lifting heavily from Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers.
Five years ago, Bryan Bertino's The Strangers opened one weekend earlier to reap healthy returns, and DeMonaco tips his hat to that predecessor by having his psychopaths also don spooky masks as they come-a-calling on their middle-class suburban prey.
Unlike 2008's superior, unsparingly disturbing " The Strangers ," which "The Purge" resembles quite a bit, there is a tendency to rely on a series of close calls and people being in the right place at the right time.
The suburban-insecurity theme also stirs memories of David Fincher's Panic Room, Jonathan Kaplan's Unlawful Entry and even Neil Labute's Lakeview Terrace; the barely concealed bloodlust of the bourgeoisie recalls The Last House on the Left; while the idea of state-sanctioned, carefully contained mayhem was executed on a grander scale in The Hunger Games and Rollerball.
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Writer/director James DeMonaco isn't too far from his comfort zone as he previously scripted the 2005 remake of John Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13."
PHOTOS: Summer Sneaks 2013 But it's almost astonishing how little genuine tension exists in the ensuing siege scenario, considering DeMonaco's familiarity with John Carpenter's unnerving classic "Assault on Precinct 13," the clichéd remake of which he wrote.
So, on the page, we have a mesh of “Night of the Living Dead,” with the black man, the soldier, the Other, in their midst, as well as the confined but endlessly volatile spaces of “Halloween” and “Assault on Precinct 13.” (There’s even a bit of John Carpenter’s vulnerable young women who quickly turn strong.)
Writer/director James DeMonaco, who previously scripted the surprisingly effective 2005 remake of John Carpenter's " Assault on Precinct 13 ," cuts creative corners this way throughout "The Purge."
But the attempt at social commentary—along with the final revelation of who the family’s ultimate savior turns out to be (an outcome that the least-seasoned filmgoer will predict without any trouble)—is delivered with a hysterical sledgehammer, rather like the one Brian Yuzna used in his little-seen but similarly themed “Society” back in 1989.