The Purge: Anarchy
Dir: James DeMonaco
2014
***
James DeMonaco's first Purge film was a largely unoriginal 'house invasion' thriller but with an interesting dystopian concept. It was the sort of idea that had legs. That said, I think it needed to move on to the next logical step before it got really good and The Purge: Anarchy is that next logical step. The first film was all in house, The Purge: Anarchy brings the story to the outside and to a group of people who managed to find themselves outside during the one night you really want to stay in. More than that though, a dark conspiracy is at play, making it harder for many - the poor- to opt out of the evening's annual massacre. At their core, the Purge films are out-in-the-open slasher films, but there is an interesting, and never overly pushed undercurrent of politics, class war and history about them. It is a terrifying idea, unthinkable, but really not that far fetched when you consider the countless injustices, killings, dictatorships etc that happen somewhere around the world every day. The most unexpected element for me was the inclusion of an anti-purge movement within the film, in this respect, DeMonaco developed the idea far faster and further than I thought he would have within just one sequel. It was nice to move the story away to another part of town and to look at a different group of characters, although one original character does appear for continuity. The idea will stick with you more than the imagery and I would argue that the film is as resonant as it tries to be. Frank Grillo does well in his not-quite leading role and Carmen Ejogo leads an impressive supporting cast. If I'm being brutally honest a lot of the film feels like it is trying way too hard to be old school John Carpenter but certain scenes are absolute dynamite in their own right. I like the whole mask too. Masks is a funny one, too many slashers suffer from the overused 'man in a mask' formula but it is the inhibitions people lose when they unidentifiable that DeMonaco focuses on and no matter what angle you look at it from, it's deeply disturbing. It's a rare film whereby you can be classically entertained as you would in any good action/thriller and also disturbed by the realism and the fact that somehow it all feels plausible. It's no masterpiece but it is pretty clever for what it is.