The Purge movies get better as they go along. The premise is great: for the US to stop crime, we have one night where all crime is legal for everyone to “purge” their tendencies. The first film ruins it by trapping a family in a house. The Purge: Anarchy is smarter; it puts us in the street with Leo (Frank Grillo), our enigmatic hero, and surrounds us by the scary people in the street. The Purge: Election Year mirrors what’s going on in our society politically at merges it with the premise, a merger that always makes a horror movie better.
This year Leo is head of security for Senator Sanders, I mean, Senator Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), who’s family was murdered on Purge night years ago. She’s a reformer, trying to eliminate the purge for what it does to the poorest of people. However, the rich religious New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) party despise her, and wish to kill her during purge night. Outside of Leo, the Senator receives help from supporters Joe (Mykelti Williamson), Marcos (Joseph Julian Soria) and Laney (Betty Gabriel): local businessman closely affected by the disenfranchisement the purge creates.
The Purge: Election Year is unabashed leftist porn. This isn’t a bad thing: the political motivation gives the film lots of bite and aligns the movie with the United States political present. There’s little subtlety for the most part: white religious “freedom fighters” use white supremacist militia to suppress the poor for their own twisted logic and to make America better (read: great again). The purge also infuses American capitalist tendencies and “murder tourists” who view the purge as what real America is. And while there are some awful minority characters, most of the characters who get our sympathy are blacks, Mexicans, and women. However, the more I thought about it, the more smart I realized this movie was: twisting religion into your political beliefs, capitalist oppression of the poor, using violence to fight violence and its effectiveness are not often themes covered in horror. Who knew The Purge would pull brilliance out of its inauspicious start? I for one am surprised, and delighted.
Don’t worry, Purge fans. This film isn’t just political machination. Not when founding father masks exist. The violence is pretty jarring to see: guillotines, swinging axes, and drones all factor in. Writer/director James DeMonaco blends the message stuff with the violence pretty seamlessly. There is a nice mix of jump scares and haunting imagery that will keep the audience guessing while investing into the story. The movie also has a dark humor streak that helps cut the tension, like mob mentality chanting or obvious dialogue/one liners after awesome kills. DeMonaco weaves all this disparate tones into its strong story and uses the story to create the tonal shifts with a few small exceptions.
Election Year’s success is also due to the character actors investing fully in the story. This is Frank Grillo’s franchise, and he plays the silent, enigmatic hero well enough (clearly the audience surrogate). Elizabeth Mitchell has been playing preachy characters on TV, so she was ready for this role. She’s more warm here than I’ve seen her before, and I wish the movie made her less damseley, but she’s believable as the politician we’re rooting for. Mykelti Williamson extracts a lot of emotion as the cynical struggling business owner: he’s the secret weapon of this film. Joseph Julian Soria, Dante Bishop, and Betty Gabriel are also good supporting characters doing a lot with a little time. Kyle Secor is deliciously evil as the Minister opposing Mitchell.
At this rate, the next Purge movie will be the must-see movie of the year. Election Year pulses with strong themes and scary stuff from a terrific premise. Mask stores now freak me out, especially ones featuring ex-presidents…*shudder.*