The Purge | Review & Score

About: A wealthy family is held hostage for harboring the target of a murderous syndicate during the Purge, a 12-hour period in which any and all crime is legal.

One of the most realistic concepts for a horror movie ever created.

THE PURGE tells the story of a 2022 America where one time a year, all crime is legal for 12 hours. This law and event was created by the "New Founding Fathers of America" to help reduce crime in the country, in a law abiding life.

I didn't think much about the synopsis for this movie when it first came out, because I wasn't into the whole political scene with the world. Now that I've dabbled into the political arena in my life, this is one of the most, if not, the most realistic concepts a movie could come up with - that happens to be a fictional tale.

The scariest part now, is that this took place in 2022. Now we're in 2022. Pretty scary shit to watch now, isn't it? If it wasn't considered a "horror" movie by people when it was first released, I bet that ideology has changed almost dramatically now. But, it's alright... we're not there. Yet.

The Purge has a very game and solid cast, with Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke at the helm of things. Hawke plays the father and the owner of the most advanced and highly profitable security company, James Sandin. James tries to protect his family from the Purgers outside during the lockdown.

Other supporting cast members include Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), Max Burkholder (Parenthood), Adelaide Kane (CW's 'Reign') and Rhys Wakefield. The first three portray members of the James' family. Mary (Headey), Charlie (Burkholder) and Zoey (Kane). Wakefield portrays the 'Polite Leader' of a cult-like group who terrorizes the Sandin family.

I want to compliment a few things. The acting, plot, action sequences, suspense, villainous character 'Polite Leader' and the ending.

The acting, particularly from Hawke and Wakefield. Hawke is a great actor and has shown to be quite the character actor over the years, especially in recent years with his roles in The Black Phone, In a Valley of Violence, The Magnificent Seven, First Reformed and Adopt a Highway. With Wakefield, he's a strictly independent actor who has done some really solid roles in recent years, but his character in this movie is always referred to as his very best.

Wakefield is tremendous and scary as 'Polite Leader', the main antagonist of the film. I don't know how they haven't made a movie about The Joker without Wakefield as Joker, but I think we need to make that happen soon enough. Don't get me wrong, Ledger and Phoenix knocked it out of the park in recent memory, but Wakefield could give them a serious run for their money. He's damn good.

Wakefield is the one actor and performance in The Purge that truly glued me to the screen the rest of the movie since he appeared first on screen. He's subtle, softly yet very articulately spoken, highly educated, highly intelligent and clever as a snake. He plays, in my opinion, one of the most prominent villains in recent horror history. Wakefield needs to do more characters similar to 'Polite Leader'.

The neighbors of the Sandin's who end up being some more important villains, all did very well. Some scary, intimidating performances all around, especially that of Arija Bareikis, who portrays Grace Ferrin. I mean... let's be honest, by the way she approached Mary early on in the movie, you can tell she was up to something and sure enough. Yikes. Sandin's almost been fooled.

Other than that, the acting from most supporting roles were pretty straight forward.

Another thing I liked was the suspenseful scenes, where the Sandin's are in their house running around, frightened, trying to stay alive and waiting for the break-in from the Polite Leader and his gang. Those scenes, shot in the dark, were really solid. Very suspenseful and at times gets your anxieties going good.

Other than the plot, which is very original and a great concept, the ending was really well done. You had the neighbors showing their true colors to Mary and family. That was a nice touch and fairly predictable. All was performed and shot well. I liked the touch of Mary not wanting to kill anyone or anyone to kill anyone on purpose until the night was over. That added humanity and realism to the story. I enjoyed that.

All in all, The Purge is one of the coolest and best horror entries of the last decade. It spawned a few sequels and a prequel, has made millions of dollars for Blumhouse and Universal. It's one of the best horror concepts in a long time. Very original and at times, very scary. All well done. Bravo.

If you've never seen The Purge or its sequels, even the TV show, I would suggest you do. They're fun movies and adds a lot of realism to the world of film. All original and unique in their own respective ways.

3.5/5