472: The Purge

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[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_00]: 179. Let's get to the first in the Purge franchise.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_00]: The first of five films that I'm going to be covering, which is The Purge,

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_00]: which came out in 2013.

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_00]: It is written and directed by James DeMonaco.

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Stars Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Adelaide Kane, a few others.

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_00]: The synopsis is,

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_00]: A wealthy family is held hostage for harboring the target of a murderous syndicate during The Purge,

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_00]: a 12-hour period in which any and all crime is legal.

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_00]: So, I haven't really done much of The Purge at all on the show over the years.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I saw the first one in theaters and I have followed it pretty much ever since.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And what's sort of frustrating about it is, overall I like it.

[00:01:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I tend to give it the benefit of the doubt because it's at least something different in the big scheme of things

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_00]: in terms of horror and low-budget horror.

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_00]: But probably my biggest issue with the whole franchise, even though there are ones that I like,

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_00]: is that these movies with the political commentary, the social commentary,

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_00]: they could be so much better than they are.

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_00]: So much more potent, so much sharper, so much scarier.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And instead they mostly become just a fairly low-brow political horror film, in a way.

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And just to go ahead and get into things, I was not a fan of it when I first saw it, and I'm still not.

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I think it is probably second to the bottom of the five so far.

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I find that especially, maybe some people feel the opposite, let me know in the comments,

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_00]: or wherever you're listening, I find that as the series progresses with new ideas, new locations,

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_00]: opening up the world of The Purge, this one becomes less and less interesting to me.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Because it basically is just a home invasion film.

[00:03:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Which is fine, nothing against that, I like home invasion films.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_00]: But there's really not that much going on.

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_00]: I like Lena Headey and Ethan Hawke, but everything else around them is not very good.

[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I think the direction is pretty weak, and it's probably, I've seen it maybe three or four times over the years,

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: all of them about that same amount.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_00]: This is really the only one of the five that I actually just find to be pretty consistently boring.

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm never really that engaged, I don't really care about what's happening,

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_00]: the writing is sort of obnoxious, I think.

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And one of the biggest things is, I don't mind it as much as when they get into anarchy,

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_00]: into things on the streets where you see the barbaric gangs of people who are just out to kill and cause violence.

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_00]: It makes sense that those characters in that context are more psychopathic,

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_00]: and just will be acting crazy and will be pure evil, in a way.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Whereas in this, the purgers who want to come inside are just,

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_00]: the performances, the look are just too evil.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_00]: It just becomes so cartoony where the expressions on their faces,

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_00]: how they speak, the overly groomed and quote-unquote polite that they are,

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_00]: it just comes across as so over-the-top evil that it's really not even scary,

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_00]: and it's not really funny either, it's just this very inauthentic kind of villain, in my opinion.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's why if you look at some of the other home invasion films like The Strangers, for example,

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_00]: that's one that works for me because for one, the villains don't really talk.

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, the home invaders, they don't really speak.

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And you can really only think about how evil they must be.

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Whereas in this, you get way too much information from therein to really,

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: it just confirms, alright, these people are just goofy.

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't really feel like this is an actual person trying to get in the house.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's, of all the things, that's probably my biggest issue every single time I watch this.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I just don't like the purgers in this, in terms of the relation to the overall story.

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_00]: But talking about the concept as a whole,

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I think the concept, what makes it scary is they do it in enough of a reality

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_00]: to where it could potentially happen at some point, you know?

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And there's nothing supernatural about it or anything like that.

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's one thing that works for me is it's grounding it, for the most part, in a reality.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that is effective.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And going back to the overall execution of it,

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I think James D'Amonico, he wrote and directed the first three,

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_00]: and then he's had a part in the latter two, as well as the TV show,

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_00]: which maybe I'll do at some point, I don't know.

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: But I feel like if you gave this to someone,

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: like if you look at a movie recently like Civil War, the Alex Garland film,

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: if you had that level of a studio like A24,

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_00]: a filmmaker and writer like Alex Garland, a good cast,

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_00]: you could really make something in this world, not the same as Civil War,

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: but in the same, more of a horror film as the Purge films are,

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_00]: and really make it hit hard.

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And they come close maybe occasionally, but it's all...

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_00]: In the end, this whole series really indulges and fetishizes

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_00]: the violence and the evilness that it's also trying to comment on.

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_00]: So that inherently is a problem because it's like,

[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_00]: here, this could happen in our society if we're not careful,

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_00]: or these people exist in our society,

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_00]: and then oh, but look how cool and creepy this mask is.

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And this costume design of this Purger is.

[00:06:49] [SPEAKER_00]: But besides that, talking about this one more specifically,

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I like the opening credits where it almost seems like actual footage,

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: like security footage. I don't know if that's actually true,

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_00]: but it at least comes across that way. I think that's effective.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I like the sound of the Purge alarm, the horn, whatever you want to call it.

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's really good and iconic.

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_00]: The news message, you know, the Purge is commencing,

[00:07:12] [SPEAKER_00]: that whole thing, I think that's really good.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe at times a little over the top, but I still think it works.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_00]: And I do appreciate having Lena Headey and Ethan Hawke in this

[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_00]: because they are really above this kind of movie, both of them.

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And they do the most with what they have.

[00:07:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And I like the idea of Ethan Hawke's character being this

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_00]: pretty wealthy security system salesman,

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_00]: but then the systems that he sells are pretty crappy, actually,

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_00]: unbeknownst to the buyers.

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_00]: And then he gets a taste of his own medicine where the only thing

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_00]: that needs to happen is his son lets in somebody and bam,

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_00]: everything's over. And I think that's, I mean, there's nothing deep,

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_00]: super deep about it, but I still think it's an interesting message

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_00]: for the wealthy and how protected some of them may think they are.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_00]: So the setup works. I like the look of the house,

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_00]: but overall the lighting, and it goes into perhaps being

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_00]: a first-time director and it also being in the first stage

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_00]: of Blumhouse where clearly they didn't care about anything

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_00]: except getting the scares and, you know, they only had so much money,

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_00]: which, you know, makes sense. I would have done the same,

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_00]: but I think overall the movie looks pretty bad lighting-wise,

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_00]: cinematography, and everything is, I think, shoddily put together.

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So still not a fan at this point. I don't think it's ever really

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_00]: going to go up that much, but I do appreciate that it exists

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_00]: so we can get some of the others in the franchise.

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_00]: So that one is a two out of five.