'The Purge: Election Year' confronts ugly realities with B-movie thrills
The Purge: Election Year is scarier than it has any right to be.
It's not the assemblage of creepy murder masks, a notably muted presence in this third outing for the series. It's also not the wanton violence at the center of Purge Night, a 12-hour window during which America's emergency services shut down and all crimes -- up to and including murder -- are kosher.
It's not even the scary resemblance Election Year's fictional presidential candidates have to the current real-life political landscape, nor is it the chilling thought that we're maybe 10 years and one Trump victory away from the Purge becoming a reality.
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No, the scariest thing about The Purge: Election Year is the creeping certainty that a not-insignificant part of the movie's audience is actively rooting for the gang of rich, old white people that came up with the everything-goes crimefest. Legal murder night feels like an NRA dream come true.
Election Year uses Washington, D.C. as its backdrop for an evening of violence. It's not just politically timely, either. The new setting at last gives writer/director James DeMonaco a chance the explore the architects of his dystopian nightmare: the New Founding Fathers of America.
The NFFA is the aforementioned governing body of old white people. It's the real puller of strings in the U.S. and it ostensibly established Purge Night to reduce crime and unemployment.
In truth, the annual event is a form of population control that favors the rich and powerful -- who can afford to protect themselves and insure their property -- while the poor are victimized.
That subtext has always floated around at the borders of every frame in previous Purge movies, but it's front-and-center in Election Year.
Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell) is a mix of Bernie and Hillary, calling for an end to Purge Night and raising hackles all throughout corporate America. Opposing her on the distant right is the god-fearing Trump stand-in, Minister Edwidge Owens (Kyle Secor), for whom Purge Night is a solemn religious observance.
It's a B-movie to the core; brute force entertainment with little nuance.
Normally, high-level government officials are off-limits on Purge Night, but the NFFA changes the rules in Election Year. The reason is simple enough: Sen. Roan's campaign to end the yearly murderfest is a threat to their wallets, and that's something they cannot abide.
Fortunately for Roan she has ace security in the form of Leo (Frank Grillo), the lead in The Purge: Anarchy. Leo's been shaped by his Purge Night experiences, and the Senator's bid to end it earns his loyalty.
Things go smoothly enough at first, with Roan buttoned up in her D.C. brownstone home with guards on the ground, snipers on the roof and agents in every room. But things of course go sideways, leaving Leo and his boss running from danger outside on the worst night of the year.
They find some safety in numbers when they team up with old school deli man Joe Dixon (Mykelti Williamson), chill Roan-bro Marcos (Joseph Julian Soria) and roving Purge Night nurse Laney Rucker (Betty Gabriel), all of whom are in equally dire straits. But there's no escaping the NFFA.
All of the usual Purge festivities -- creepy masked murderers, disturbingly violent street scenes, kidnapping, etc. -- are punctuated by the ever-present threat of Roan's assassins. This band of armored, Swastika-and-White Power patch-wearing soldiers give chase all throughout.
Election Year leans harder into action than thriller, so most of the tension is relegated to adrenaline-pumping jump scares. It's a B-movie to the core; brute force entertainment with little nuance.
Really, it's the reality of the world we live in now that makes the movie interesting. This is an emotional moment in our world's history. Lots of people are angry for lots of different reasons, and Election Year's notion of "murder tourism" -- literally, tourists coming to the U.S. to indulge in our bloodthirsty American culture -- targets some unsettling parallels.
The movie is a gratuitous indulgence that also happens to be provocative. It doesn't make a particularly elegant argument -- the story is rife with inexplicable scenarios and far-fetched caricatures -- but who has time for that when they're driven by real world anger and frustration?
In any other year, this is nothing more than a B-movie thriller. That's been a hallmark of the series, really: entertaining but not necessarily good.
But it's not any other year. This is 2016, home of the most fraught -- and potentially world-changing -- U.S. presidential election of the modern era. Whether or not it's by intent, The Purge Election Year pushes all buttons.
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Topics Film
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
