Review of The Purge (2013) by Brad_Rowe — 27 Jun 2013

A day in which crimes are all forgiven, for America has found new refuge under the tradition of the annual purge, a concept which toys with our inner primate selves. The Purge begins very slowly setting the scene in an eerily fashion, viewers are introduced to the normality of the purge quite quickly and it is this normality which then makes the later developments in the plot so shocking to an unsuspecting viewer.

The concept is one which could of probably been delivered to a higher standard however the movie to an extent does give it some justice, with it only being 85 minutes in total leaving you hungry for more it immediately becomes apparent that "The Purge" is a short taster to a number of following prequels,it provides an insight into "home invasion" one aspect of many which could be exploited in the concept of "The Purge".

With the whole movie being set in the house like movies similar such as "panic room" the director has chosen to diversify the film by using a number of different rooms on screen within the family house however due to it being set in the early hours of the morning and later developments leading to low level lighting it means that most of the movie is quite dark.

Ethan Hawke plays the patriotic father of the family, an upper class family which strongly supports the annual purge however when they become involved stumble upon choices they must have to make in order to protect there family from the threat outside. The family and neighbours were poorly portrayed by their actor counterparts, it really took value away from the movie and made you want to quetion were they acting with the boy child being emotionless throughout the film and the neighbours being gormless in some scenes.

Despite this I was glued to my chair throughout, the movie started slow however became quite fast moving. With me not seeing the trailer beforehand the movies events were more of a shock as they came to play and allowed for me to be more gripped. Following the credits the general consensus was positive for being such a low budget film.