Review by Daniel Cullen
In this review I will be discussing the
film ‘the Purge’ by James DeMonaco. To summarise briefly the film is about a
theory that America has been “reborn” out of a terrible era, all thanks to the
‘New Founding Fathers’, who invented a tradition in which once a year, all
crime is legal for one twelve-hour period. The film begins with a title
informing us that now, in the year 2022, unemployment is at an astonishing rate
of just 1 percent and a large majority of the people in the USA is happy. Apparently, it’s all due to “The
Purge”, an incredible new holiday during which the rich settle into their
heavily guarded houses behind their gated communities, turn on the TV, cook up
some dinner for the family, and watch everybody else (mainly the homeless and
poor people) rape, fight with and kill each other in a nationwide event said to
be ‘soul-cleansing’.
Our ‘heroes’ that we follow on this
particular night are the very rich Sandin family. The father of the family,
James (Ethan Hawke), is very successful by selling security systems, most
likely because of his possibly resentful neighbours in their perfect, gated
community. Meanwhile, there are 2 kids; ultra shy Charlie (Max Burkholder) and
the rebellious teenager Zoey (Adelaide Kane), resent their family in their own
ways. As the Sandins settle in for the Purge, calmly barricading their house
and setting up the father’s ‘immaculate’ security system, we begin to sense
that things may be about to go a little wrong. Firstly, Zoey’s boyfriend has
snuck into the house and wants to “have a talk” with Dad. Then, an unknown,
bloodied man (Edwin Hodge) comes screaming for help down the street, chased by
an unseen mob, and Charlie lets him in; big mistake!
The film is then followed by a series of
events involving the unseen mob we previously briefly heard of being revealed.
They are a group of individuals, dressed in a disturbing attire to say the
least, who approach the Sandin family’s house with a proposition. The man that
entered their house is a homeless man, and they wish to relieve themselves by
killing him. The rest of the film contains a struggle of the family trying to
safely get the man to the mob without further consequences occurring.
This film uses specific features in order
for the audience to easily distinguish and recognize is as a film. For example,
the masks used in the film are particularly scary and are a key factor in the
associating factors linked with the film. Also, the actual concept of the Purge
is a very original idea, and subverts from the usual horror film.
The sound in this film is a key aspect in
adding to the scary feel of the film. Throughout the film, the sound goes from
very quiet and then parts in which they wish to intensify the horror for the
audience, it suddenly goes extremely loud, and especially if you watch it in
the cinema, it creates an extremely scary effect which will make you jump.
The costumes are very distinctive and in
this film make the film a great amount scarier. The costumes for the villain
characters are some of the scariest costumes in not only this film, but of any
film I have ever seen.
The scene is set in at night time, so the
lighting is always dark. This yet again intensifies the scary and dramatic feel
because for a large majority of the film you can either not see what is
happening, or it is very difficult to see what is happening. This element of
the unknown is very scary and creates dramatic effect.
The setting of ‘The Purge’ is in a
household environment. Personally, when a film is set in a house it makes it
that much more scarier because it is an environment which you live in everyday,
as opposed to films that are set in an abandoned house, in a forest, because
that is an unrealistic setting and you cannot really relate to it.
Personally I would give this film a mixed
review. There are both good and bad things about this film. For instance, a
good thing is the narrative of the film. The unique aspect of
the idea behind the film really appeals to me as it is new and refreshing to
have a different idea as opposed to the ordinary horror film setting. However,
there are many things I believe James DeMonaco could have done better. The
first half of the film was rather slow, and it was just a buildup of the story
to come, and nothing of significance really happened. Then all of a sudden,
around half way through the film it spontaneously turned into an extremely fast
paces film and all of the action happened at once. Some people prefer this,
however I personally do not. Also, I believe the genre was not represented
clearly enough; at some points I was sat wondering if I was watching an action
film!
Excellent review Dan!
ReplyDelete