The Purge: Election Year

I love it when horror movie franchises actually get better with each sequel. The first Purge with Ethan Hawke was watchable but for the most part was also completely forgettable. The only things I really remember from it are a few black and white shots from the camera of a remote control car and the Reaganite frat boys who showed up to Hawke’s doorstep rocking H&M sweaters and casual shoes normally reserved for yachting. But thankfully with the second one they realized what a cool concept they had at their disposal and actually decided to take us outside of the house so that we could see the mayhem that was taking place on the streets.

And after seeing previews for The Purge: Election Year, it looked as though the writers were going to take it up yet another notch by having Frank Grillo protect the life of the future President of the United States. As I saw this I thought to myself "What a wonderful idea! Can you imagine how many people would go after Trump if this was something that was actually legal and available to them?" But then I started to wonder how many crazy redhead exes of mine would come after me on purge night for not brushing their hair while they watched Curly Sue in the mornings (just one of those weird things redheads do). Or how many former customers of mine would shoot at me for making them buy warranties on printer cartridges? Or how many former students would knife me for making them do the Pythagorean Theorem simply because I was bored and I wanted to watch their heads explode in frustration? Heck, maybe I need to board my place up now!

Well that’s basically what the Purge is, you save up all of your hatred for this one night to get revenge on someone you feel has wronged you throughout the year; or at least that’s what the government has sold the people on. The reality of it is, is that they use this night to rid society of its lower class; the homeless, the poor, the sick, etc., so they no longer have to spend money to help support them. But apparently the lower class wasn’t killing itself off fast enough for their liking so the government started sending out their own murder squads to the projects and lower income areas to help expedite the process.

Well President hopeful, Senator Charlie Roan, is determined to put a stop to all of this, especially after she had to see her entire family murdered before her very eyes as a child. And as rumors confirming this conspiracy theory starts to spread throughout the nation, thanks to the help of radical leader Dante Bishop, she finds herself getting closer and closer to victory. Well as you can imagine, the people in charge (the New Founding Fathers) are desperate to put an end to this, so they lift the ban on killing government officials on purge night, essentially making it open season on Roan. And now it is up to the head of her security team Grillo to help her make it through the night alive.

The writers do an excellent job of actually providing you a decent story to go along with all of the bloody action that takes place in this film and they do so without ever taking themselves too seriously. They provide you with a ton of funny jokes that mainly come from the mouth of the seen it all and done it all convenience store owner Joe Dixon (Mykelti Williamson), who is forced to stay out and protect his store on purge night from the cartoonishly evil school girls who are in desperate need of chocolate bars. Yes you read that last part correctly. This film, like its predecessors, is still over the top at times but that makes it all the more fun when these same crazy characters die in horrific ways. There are also countless one liners in this film that will have you laughing all throughout and there are enough shots of the older hottiie president hopeful that will have you dreaming (if you know what I mean) afterwards.

When it comes down to it, The Purge has everything you want in a horror film and it’s because of this that I give it a rating of very FRESH!