The First Purge: A Misguided Indictment, But An Indictment All The Same

By the time a fourth entry in a franchise is released - no matter what franchise - everyone watching the movie should know what to expect. The Purge franchise is no different. The only exception with these films is that the quality of the movies do seem to get a tad better with each entry. The acting improves with each one, the stories, the characters, and the tension. But... the structure of each movie remains the same. The first film (which I consider to be the weakest entry) centralized on a single house with a single family being terrorized by purgers. The second film expands to the city with several different groups dealing with the Purge (this movie is barely better than the first). The third film, which I still believe to be the strongest entry, is focused on a politician up for election who is running on a platform of ending the purge once and for all. Now, with The First Purge - it's the same thing once again, except it's not a sequel, it's exactly what it sounds like-- it's the first purge. We get to see the inception of it and how it came to be the country wide phenomenon it becomes in the first three films. And it's... exactly what you'd expect. If you've enjoyed any of the other films, this will be enjoyable for you. Even though it's a prequel - it's the same structure. And while it is better than the first two films, it still falls short of its message and goal.

The problem with The Purge movies - that has pervaded every one of them - is that they've got a GREAT concept. And a terrifying one at that. But, they've never really been able to capitalize on the concept. The first movie used it as a guide for the thrills. The next three have used it as the actual plot. After the first two films, it seemed like the filmmakers realized they had a film that could reflect the current political atmosphere and could do what a lot of horror films don't - actually have something to say. So, while The Purge: Election Year was basically just an indictment of conservatives... The First Purge is now able to comment on hot topics in our current political landscapes, especially the marginalization of people of color. In its creation, Dr. Updale (Marisa Tomei) uses it as a purely social experiment to study. However, the "new" government calling themselves The Founding Fathers have a more sinister plan behind it. The first Purge - called "The Experiment" is tested only in low-income areas of Staten Island while the whole world watches. Low income families and individuals are offered $5,000 just to stay on the island for the Purge. They're offered more money if they "participate". When people aren't killing each other left and right (like the Founding Fathers had expected), they send in Mercenaries disguised as gangs to begin wiping everyone out.

This film follows a couple of protagonists - first there's Nya (Lex Scott Davis) and her little brother Isaiah. Nya is an activist against the Purge and Isaiah wants the money to get him and his sister out of the slums they live in. As good as his intentions are, Isaiah causes more trouble for the two of them than he means to. Then there's Dmitri (Y'Ian Noel), a local drug kingpin with his own small empire, trying to hold down the fort with his lackies, attempting to make sure no one tries to bring his empire down. Luckily for us, Dmitri is the criminal with a heart of gold. He's a Staten Island boy and he cares about the people around him, so when shit hits the fan - he reacts in the name of good. Now, here's where The First Purge could've really said something with substance. It's a real opportunity to comment on where we're at right now as a country. However, while its heart is in the right place, it never truly finds the best way to go about making these moments of commentary. Every image that reflects real-life instances are too overt to make any real impact. Sure, there is a scene where a purger tries to attack Nya and actually "grabs her by the pussy"... to which she screams: "pussy-grabber". Yes, there are purgers dressed in cop uniforms with scary masks beating down a black man. Yes, these images do conjure up feelings of real life instances, but they never really have anything beyond the image to say about them. I do think it is important for these filmmakers to try and make statements beyond just creating a horror movie, but the handling of these statements feel very amateur. Like if a college filmmaker grabbed a bunch of headlines from the past two years, didn't delve into the real stories of them, and attempted to make what he or she thought were astute observations. The one thing The Purge movies have never really taken into consideration is subtlety. And subtlety can make all the difference.

Otherwise, the movie succeeds in being a pretty tense action-horror. There's still the suspenseful scenes and a few scares. There are terrifying costumes and masks and fear-inducing villains. There's some cool action - though this one did try to be a little bit too John Wick-esque, which felt a bit bizarre in this franchise. The acting has gotten much better. I like that The Purge films do find unknowns to lead the films since Ethan Hawke in the first one - but some of the acting in the other films have been sup-par. This one, everyone is great. I could see both Davis and Noel going on to do great things. I'll give The First Purge this- it's really trying. One can see that they're not JUST going for the cash grab. Yes, it's a franchise that could've ended with the last one. And yes, they're doing a ten episode miniseries of it later this year. Yes, these are all cash-grabby things to do. But they're at least trying to say SOMETHING in these movies. They're exposing the ugly in our country right now - a country that doesn't even have a Purge. The ways in which they're trying to do this may be misguided and a little bit too on the nose - they're trying. And I can respect the films, especially this one, for that. There's nothing new under the Purge-riddled sun... but they're not getting worse either.

C+