"The Purge" Film Series

As a rule, I don’t watch violent films. Forget Saw or its ‘offspring’, even the ‘modern’ Batman is cringing for me to watch. BUT, one evening I thought: “Toughen up and watch The Purge”. I had been told about this film series and was curious about it. Is it really like ‘that’? I didn’t bother with the book, written by Sofi Oksanen — my imagination will beat any film or book!!!

So there I was, sitting down with a cherry Fanta and crisps, and I sat through the first film “The First Purge”, (a little tip, I watched it with no sound, just subtitles). I was surprised and a little horrified at how much I enjoyed the film.

What I found interesting was the ‘concept’ of the film but God forbid it ever happens in real life!

The idea is a simple one => for 12 hours all laws and emergency services were suspended and people were ‘allowed’ to “purge” themselves, usually in a violent manner. Is this just mindless horror? Well, the violence had a reason behind it — to cleanse one's society without consequence.

It might help to know what the dictionary definition of “Purge” is => “to get rid of people from an organization because you do not agree with them” (Cambridge Dictionary).

In the film series case, there were several reasons for doing this.

1/ to get rid of the ‘poor’ to save money for the government.

2/ to use it as an experiment into human nature.

3/ class divide rears its ugly head — the rich have the money to protect themselves, the poor are vulnerable on the streets.

The first film brings out the growing income inequality, the effects of capitalism, and how far ‘that’ government was prepared to go to ‘experiment’ on humanity. The doctor who’s in charge of the ‘experiment’ has all good intentions (if that’s even possible with a subject like this), but it shows the heavy-handedness of the government, and how it just ‘took over’.

Remember — this is just a film (thank God!)

The other films are very much the same, with slightly different ‘messages’, (although I have only seen two of the films so far), but it is interesting how much of a cult following it has. The franchise has influenced pop culture, and has ‘spawned’ a very successful television series that explores the different aspects of the ‘purge world’ and its effects on ‘society'.

Remember — this is just a film series (thank God!)

The horror elements of “The Purge” have often been condemned because it shows excessive violence and gore, with people wearing masks which adds an eerie and unsettling element to the story. All this does make the film series memorable and striking (if you like that kind of thing). Some have seen it as glorifying violence and ‘promoting’ it which can be seen as a dangerous ‘message’ to take justice into one’s own hands (it has an 18 certificate, depending on the country you are in).

However, it’s interesting what the creator, James DeMonaco, of the The Purge series says: “I wanted to make people think about what they would do if everything was legal for 12 hours — what would you do? Who would you protect? Who would you hurt? Who would you save?”

The truth is though, there have been real-life events which ‘may’ have been inspired by this film series. The “purge-themed” Halloween party in Kentucky, and the franchise has been referenced in other media, including music, video games and political discussions.

The second film of The Purge that I watched showed the ‘moral’ elements of humanity, which was quite interesting. Without ruining the plot, the family of four, father, mother, daughter and son, are a rich family but refuse to join in with the killing, which is ‘tested’ throughout the whole film, until eventually the mother says: “There will be no more killing tonight!”.

I personally have found the two films that I have seen quite thought provoking about humanity and I did find myself ‘forced’ to think about what I would do to protect my loved ones and myself. Yes, I did watch both films with no sound and just subtitles because it’s the ‘sound’ that makes me more ‘frightened’, (feel free to copy that if you want — it does really ‘work’).

So, would I recommend this film series to watch?

If you like watching a film with a thought-provoking ‘message’ to it, and see what humanity ‘could’ be capable of, I’d say you possibly would enjoy it. But if you want to watch it just for the violence and gore — you’ve got the right film — but (for heaven's sake) — be careful of the mind.

And Remember — “The Purge” — is just a film series and not real (thank God!)