"The Purge" or why security systems don't work.

So, “The Purge” may have gotten a lot more attention than I originally thought it would when seeing a YouTube advertisement for it months ago. I am glad for that because I thought from first look that it would be an interesting movie. For those of you who have not seen a trailer or commercial for it the basic premise of the film is that after a revolution America's society is reconstructed with an emphasis of a night of lawlessness that provides catharsis to the constant violence living inside everyone thus causing crime rates to drop and general standards of living to go up.

Yes I am aware that this has some very basic flaws not the least of which is how the hell you could get enough people to agree to doing this that it would be enforceable? Maybe I am just a hopeless dreamer but I like to believe that most people would be against the legalization of cold-blooded murder for even one night, if only for reasons of self-preservation.

The movie provides most of the answers to the very basic plot questions that might arise, demonstrating a religious reverence for what can be assumed to be a military state considering the level of surveillance portrayed in the film.

The more important plot element is introduced first through a radio broadcast as an academic discussion that is arguably supported by the events of the film. This argument was that the Purge was designed by the government as a means of eliminating the poor who can't afford to protect themselves and thus boosting the economy and lowering crime statistics not actually by lowering crime, but by creating a window of opportunity.

I don't want to spoil the actual meat of the plot because there are some red herrings and twists that are fun to puzzle through. My opinion on the film is largely positive when it comes to the idea. The acting was also very good, especially Lena Heady. You get the feeling that she doesn't believe her own support of the Purge from the very beginning. She is drinking from the moment she walks on screen and she plays secretly tortured very well. The son is also quite good, in a heartbreakingly pure kind of way. Ethan Hawke is just surprising. I haven't seen him be such an entitled douche since Reality Bites and it was kind of nostalgic. (Secret, I kind of hate Reality Bites)

The scene stealer is (unsurprisingly) the villain. Smiley as I am want to call him, is named in script as Polite Stranger. He is polite, truthfully. I have never seen someone so very polite in such an extreme homicidal rage. It was well done. The guy is very creepy (reminded me of Viserys Targaryen) but is also just so charming. Really. It is a little unsubtle and I am pretty sure that the guy was probably imitating Paul Ryan the whole time (really, the message was that heavy handed . . . elitism with a sympathetic face will still kill you). He is unfortunately the major problem with the film.

Short version review is that while it was fun to watch, the mechanics of the film left something to be desired and the world created had so much more potential than what they gave it.

This is where the spoilers begin, also the curse words.

Why the fuck with such an interesting premise did this film turn into your everyday home invasion stalker story? Yes it has some novel developments, namely that the family is not the target of the killers but it is instead a homeless man let into the house by their son (the only person who seems to vocalize that killing is probably bad from the beginning). This creates an interesting game of hide and seek but makes the main characters of the film so very unsympathetic that it is hard to watch.

First off, I thought it was the neighbors who were going to kill them from the beginning and in a totally unsurprising 'twist' they come to save them from the strange home invaders with less than honorable intentions (basically you sold me a home protection system and I hate you for gouging me). The best plot twist from what the perspective of a home invasion could totally have been that the strangers really couldn't have gotten into the house and the people in the house were monsters for trussing up a homeless man and sending him out to be killed. I thought this was coming for most of the film and honestly once the strangers got in the home I lost most interest with the exception of really enjoying Lena Heady breaking the nose of her bitchy neighbor.

It really did become your stereotypical slasher film with a great setting, the only interesting thing was the political commentary which was for the most part sloppily handled. . . with the exception of what I really want to talk about: Security Systems.

As the strangers threaten the home it is revealed that while the security system might handle looters, it was never meant for the worst case scenario of someone desperate to break in to kill you. For me this was much more interesting than the obvious (though true and heartbreaking) reality of class biased crime laws. It raised a lot of points about obsession with the semblance of security in America. The movie drops lines from 'things like this aren't supposed to happen in our neighborhood' to ' it looks good and it works 90 percent of the time' (not direct quotes don't skewer me). It made me think about 'good neighborhoods' and the hypocrisy of truly believing that humans are capable of the worst, but only in certain places. More than that it made me think about the efficacy of security systems and how for the most part we are just hoping that the little sign and the loud noise scare away an intruder, because if they really want to rob you or kill you, the police couldn't respond quickly enough to stop them. It is an elaborate construct to make us feel safe that really doesn't have much effect on the problem. And the film explores all sorts of moral issues stemming from selling this kind of system. It is probably the best part of the actual film excluding the setting. It really is to bad that the producers seemed to think that this wasn't worth the focus of the film and it fades to the background of a 'daddy please save the day' plot.

I recommend it purely on a few satisfying moments and the fact that the premise is good and I think we should reward that, but it was lazily executed. Comment on my facebook or on the blog here with all the things you would have liked to see explored in the film. For me it would have been “ what do the anti-purge people do on purge night?”.