Please allow me to begin this review with a bold and insufferable proclamation: I was into Frank Grillo before it was cool. Grillo still isn’t a household name, but as a major supporting character in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the future star of the US remake of The Raid (a terrible idea, but Grillo’s casting is intriguing), and as the unquestioned leading man in this sequel to The Purge, Grillo is quickly soaring past “that guy” status to “the man” status. Like a more beefcake Harvey Keitel, Grillo commands every frame of The Purge: Anarchy. And in case you feel it sounds like I’m about to give a really glowing review of The Purge: Anarchy, well… oddly, I am.
Glowing might be a strong word, and I have a feeling I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do, but I had an absolute blast with this film. Because many of you are now totally questioning my integrity as well as my sanity, I’ll tell you straight out that I wasn’t a particularly big fan of the first Purge film. What made me seek that film out, however, as opposed to really any of the Saw or Paranormal Activity-esque franchises out there, was the premise. Set in a not-too-distant future, a new government called the New Founding Fathers Of America have taken command of the United States. Crime and violence are way down, the economy is booming, and that’s partly due to The Purge, a planned 12-hour period where all crimes are legal, as long as they are committed using weapons below a “class 4” explosive device. An intriguing, far-fetched, and frankly highly entertaining hook to hang a burgeoning franchise on. And in true Blumhouse Pictures fashion, The Purge was cranked out under a very small budget, set almost entirely in one house, and made insane bank at the box office. Like everyone else who saw that film, I felt like the main characters (headed up by Ethan Hawke) were absolutely stupid. I barely remember all the specifics, but lots of awful stuff happens inside of Hawke’s supposedly tightly sealed home. And really, all you want to do throughout that first film is get the heck out of that house and take a gander at what is going on out in the real world as citizens either hole up or take to the streets to “purge” under the rights granted to them by the New Founding Fathers.
The Purge: Anarchy delivers on all the promise of the first film and opens up all sorts of fresh wounds… not to mention kickstarts an open world franchise that can allow this premise to become endless entries in an annual saga of endless entries ala Paranormal Activity. Yes, if I were you, I’d bank on seeing many more Purge films come down the pike. But if they continue to expand on the fun premise, deliver the chills and excitement as well as the shallow but pulse-pounding political commentary that this sequel brings, I’ll gladly be present for the annual Purge.
This isn’t a perfect film, and I’d better lay out some of my legitimate gripes, because after that it is all going to be astonished praise. The premise: a great idea to hang a franchise on, but also a great way to beat the audience over the face with relevance. Whereas something like Snowpiercer allows the audience to draw out some of their own conclusions about how the science fiction relates to the political climate today, The Purge is made for the widest possible swatch of R-rated film watchers, and the filmmakers couldn’t trust that audience to pick up on a whole lot of subtlety. Characters say a bunch of earnest and blatant things throughout the movie that can make you groan because… had they gone unsaid, the meaning of the film wouldn’t be any less present. Characters talk too much, and spout the themes right out of their mouths. I guess this kind of thing is to be expected for a wide audience franchise such as this. There’s also the occasional shakey cam problem where the filmmaking technique obscures what you are seeing on screen in order to affect a particular style. I don’t really like that style, but fortunately it isn’t too prominent. Any other issues have to do with why any rational human would be travelling or anywhere but locked down into their homes with supplies a full 12 hours prior to the purge, or the fact that this entire premise would never happen in a million years.
But this is the movies, and those kinds of nitpicks aren’t really welcome here. The Purge is a simple premise, and one has to accept it as the law of this land in order to enjoy these films. What is interesting is how writer/director (of both films) James DeMonaco uses the premise to explore elements of horror, politics, thrills, and even character development. The first film seemed to squander the ingenius premise on a home invasion story that was limited by both budget and the factual existence of logic, since its characters don’t use it. But upping his game on almost every level, DeMonaco here creates a cast of characters that feel at least two dimensional, and get them out into the streets largely for reasons stemming from who they are as characters and humans. The plot goes in surprising directions as we get out into the streets on purge night.
A remarkably “2014” film, the greatest strength of The Purge: Anarchy is that it full on shows us a thrilling class war. No non-violent protests here. No pleasantries between the 99% and that top 1%. The Purge acts as a tool to deliver us caricature-level rich folks who will dress like aristocracy and hunt down the small people with elephant guns. On top of the class warfare serving as a populist catharsis, you’ve also got a multi-ethnic cast which seems to indicate that, when social mobility is totally stymied, division by class will be far more prevalent than division by race or creed. Producer Jason Blum has proven time and again to be a savvy business man and here The Purge brings us little in the way of “star power”, but also shows us a cast that looks like today’s America, knowing that this allows an even wider base of fans to cheer this film along.
With Frank Grillo’s character (known only as Seargant) being the character who is intentionally hitting the streets on purge night with a mission of vengeance in his heart, he immediately calls to mind Frank Castle, AKA The Punisher. Or perhaps Death Wish’s Paul Kersey. The fact that he lets himself get pulled into helping some less fortunate souls struggling to survive the knight makes him the hero of our tale, but his stoicism about why exactly he is out purging offers a tension between the lead characters that is pretty wonderful.
The Purge: Anarchy simply delivers the goods. It looks great, featuring masked vigilantes roaming the streets in iconic masks and costumes in a moodily-lit urban hell scape. Grillo’s complicated, stoic hero is absolutely nothing new, but still elevates every scene he is in (which is most of them). And DeMonaco just seems to be having a blast forcing his audience to walk that razor sharp line between bloodthirsty catharsis and conviction of guilt. Many of us are struggling for work, the economy is fragile and the environment seems to be revolting against our industrialization. Distrust in the government is at an all time high, and our financial institutions aren’t even pretending they aren’t out to get us anymore. So an audience member can be forgiven for cheering when Grillo turns a gun on a bunch of 1%-ers who are literally hunting him down with night vision goggles. One can understand when that guy in the theater cheers at the sight of a wall street investment banker hung from a building with a sign on his corpse saying something about how he stole their pension funds so they took his life. A lot of us are mad as hell here in 2014, and we can’t take it anymore. DeMonaco channels that everyman rage into The Purge films. And then he pulls back and shows you the horror of that catharsis. One minute you are cheering, or even contemplating how nice it would be a have little to no crime or poverty, and then you realize just how awful this fantasy world truly is and how heavy of a price that civilization is paying for their safety.
And more importantly than all of that, the film simply entertains. With tense set pieces, bizarre explorations of the darker corners of the culture of the purge, and even the initial seeds of a potential political uprising in the wings, it is clear that this movie pulls no punches when trying to thrill and entertain you and get your blood boiling… and it also reminds you that this premise can and will be mined endlessly, ever broadening the world and the mythology of The Purge. As long as Frank Grillo continues to be my guide through this insane near-future, I’m in for the long haul.
On-the-nose political commentary, blatant exploitative violence, and a Saw-like sheen of slick horror hold this film back from ever being something great that will speak to anyone beyond the core horror/exploitation audience. But all of those things somehow worked together towards giving me one great time at the movies, and a far more exciting experience than I ever anticipated was possible. Fans of the first film will almost certainly love this latest entry, but those who find the premise or tone of these films to be eye-rolling from the start will want to steer clear.
And I’m Out.