Let us all cleanse our souls

Whether what this film suggests is actually feasible is an entirely separate matter – would an annual 12-hour period in which all crimes are allowed really help decrease America’s crime rate and solve unemployment? During these hours even the emergency services do not respond, and it turns into a free-for-all Battle Royale/Hunger Games in which the population is given the chance to get all violence and hatred out of their system.

The year is 2022, and “The Purge” has truly turned things around, with the United States becoming a nation reborn thanks to this little cleansing process. James (Hawke) and Mary (Headey) don’t take part in this ritual (as is their right), and traditionally hideout in their proudly fortified mansion, choosing not to get involved, but fully supporting the idea of “The Purge”. Their children Zoey (Kane) and Charlie (Burkholder) are a little too young, naïve and idealistic to fully comprehend the need for this yearly event (and to be quite frank, the audience won’t be fully sold on this idea either) but it’s the world they live in now, and they need to learn to deal with it.

So “The Purge” starts bang on time at 7pm with a loud horn signalling the beginning of all things criminal, and ends at 7am sharp, giving the public plenty of time to unleash the monsters within. Things seem to be going well for James’ family, with the patriarchfeeling confident that their state-of-the-art brand new security systems will keep out anyone who roams through the streets looking for trouble.

But having dumb, useless children is certainly this family’s massive downfall. When their youngest Charlie sees a Bloody Stranger (Edwin Hodge – this is his credited character name) crying out for help, the kind-hearted idiot lets the man in. Turns out he’s been running away from an insane gang of masked youths who are exercising their Constitutional right to purge. This gang means business, all of them wielding deadly weapons, dressed to kill, aching for some blood to be spilled. James’ family has been thrown into this turmoil, and as these youngsters start a siege and an eventual home invasion, since their defence system really isn’t all that great, they are left to fight and fend for themselves; as until 7am, there will be no help coming their way. Adding to this is another troublesome offspring of theirs: the daughter – and her boyfriend who snuck his way into the house for some mischievous action of his own.

Despite the initially intriguing premise of this annual ritual, the film doesn’t actually spend too much time on having a closer look at the event itself. As is the case with all standard home invasion movies, the lights go off, there are many sharp corners, the bad guys are coming in from all directions, and the good guys are at a tremendous disadvantage. The build-up isn’t so well handled, with very little and largely generic character development for the family dynamic. Headey is much less interesting here without her Queen Regent Cersei Lannister’s sharp dialogue or costumes, and Hawke is as smoothly convincing as he always is, although he isn’t allowed to give much range to his performance.

However when the blood-thirsty, psychotic gang does break in, it’s all tremendously fun. It’s intriguing to see what the ordinary citizens are capable of – when the beast is unleashed – to protect their families and this is what the film tries to explore. Hawke is fantastic when he brings out the demons, which is really what the film tries to explore – just to what lengths can a family man go to without betraying what he stands for? Both James and Mary are clear in the start that they’re not a violent part of “The Purge”, and it’s interesting to see how dangerously close they get to the line they wish not to cross.

And it’s this theme the film should have focused on more. But opting out of portraying depth and instead choosing to go down the easy route of simple violence and loud crashes and thuds, what it eventually boils down to is something familiar. It ends on an outrageous and somewhat hysterically bizarre twist, one that further confirms the film has very little character consistency whatsoever.