Ticket Price: $11.50
Showtime: 8:20 pm
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 25 minutes
James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) sells security systems to people in his neighborhood to protect them from the yearly Purge. He also made a fortune doing so, buying a huge house and living a life of ignorant luxury. He figured just because he had money and a security system that was enough to keep violence away from his family.
He was dead wrong.
At precisely 7pm one night a year, The Purge begins and people must take shelter and assume the best or fight for their lives and join The Purge. This government sanctioned process was enacted by the New Founding Fathers as part of a reborn United States in response to soaring crime rates, a slumping economy and rising unemployment. The scary part is, it worked.
"The Purge" is another film about the haves vs. the have nots. Rich people assume that The Purge is a means of getting rid of the poor "trash," society's burdens, though mass population control, almost a mass cleansing.
I walked out of the theater genuinely terrified. The entire movie I was legitimately frightened. It wasn't just the overall theme of the movie, it was much more than that. The human element is was scared me. People supported this movement, people lived for this movement. TV personnel talked about this as happily as if it were Christmastime. A happy sounding sonata plays over a scene of gruesome murders as the credits roll at the beginning of the film. It really reminded me of watching Nazi propaganda films in high school and how people believed in Hitler, and I got very Hilter-esque vibes throughout the entire movie.
The guy in a suit the row behind us walked out of the theater momentarily and I almost jumped out of my seat when he came back in. Another guy came into our theater and just stood there for a good 3 minutes, staring. I was convinced these two were in cahoots and were going to do us all in.
A lot of this movie is pretty predictable with simple dialogue, which makes it flawed. On the most basic level, it's a home invasion type of violent horror film, this violence is just sanctioned by the government. There's no real twists or turns, you pretty much see everything coming, but there were good "BOO!" moments; the suspense was decent and it had a creepy feel to it, especially the masks the people who show up at the Sandin's doorstep wore...DAMN, those were creepy.
BRB, never letting anyone else in the house ever again.
My Rating: 6/10
Josh's Rating: 6/10
IMDB Rating: 5.8/10
Do we recommend the film: The concept is pretty out there, but so are concepts about aliens and monsters and serial killers killing people in dreams. As long as you accept the concept of film and suspend disbelief, you're good to watch this movie. If you have an inherent problem with your government giving you lease and free reign to kill other citizens, stay away. Starring: Ethan Hawke, Lena Heady, and a bunch of other people you've never heard of).
I'm so happy you reviewed this! I've been curious because I loved Paranormal Activity (The first one). Look's like I'll pass...maybe I'll see it when it comes out on video. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's not something you HAVE to see in the theater, but it's a decent horror movie. Another deterrent is the movie time...$12ish bucks for a movie that's so short is a lot!
DeleteThe idea of this (and the commercials) freak me out. It brings back the feelings I had while reading The Hunger Games ... those near panic feelings deep your gut as you wonder if/how you'd survive if you were in this situation.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if I'll ever watch the movie, but terrorizing myself by thinking about it all is kind of entertaining in itself.
~Deb
That's EXACTLY how I felt throughout the movie (and, frankly, two days later...); I would NEVER survive anything like this, and it's not even really fun imagine if I would, HAHAHAH!
DeleteDo you think your hubby would like this?