DOUBLE REVIEW: The Purge (2013) / The Purge: Anarchy (2014)

The Purge
Originally written on 12 December 2013 on personal blog.

IMDB rate: 5,5

Genre: Serial-Killer
Starring: Lena Headey, Ethan Hawke, Rhys Wakefield

The Purge, not the most appreciated movie around. Personally, I loved it. I think the Purge has a great concept of which I wouldn't be too surprised if this would become an actual thing in the future. A sequel was released as well, scroll further if you'd like to read the review of The Purge: Anarchy as well. Now all we have to do is wait for The Purge 3!

In an America wracked by crime and overcrowded prisons, the government has sanctioned an annual 12-hour period in which any and all criminal activity -including murder- becomes legal. The police can't be called. Hospitals suspend help. It's one night when the citizenry regulates itself without thought of punishment. On this night plagued by violence and an epidemic of crime, one family wrestles with the decision of who they will become when a stranger comes knocking. When an intruder breaks into James Sandin's gated community during the yearly lockdown, he begins a sequence of events that threatens to tear a family apart. Now, it is up to James, his wife, Mary, and their kids to make it through the night without turning into the monsters from whom they hide.

What I loved most about The Purge was the concept. First of all, it was set in the future, which makes the happenings a lot more believable. Second, the whole concept of a 'killing day' was amazing. Well, of course not for the people who are being killed... but it's a cool idea to minimize crime overall. To be honest, I wouldn't be too surprised if America ever gained this Purge-day. It would be kinda fucked up, but I'm just saying that it wouldn't surprise me a whole lot.

The acting in this movie is very good. Ethan Hawke is an amazing actor. While I wasn't too much of a fan of Sinister, I liked the acting in it, especially from Ethan Hawke. And again, he did an amazing job. Lena Headey is of course the best known for Game of Thrones where she plays Cersei Lannister. A very different role from this one, and it was actually quite funny to see her play in a role like this one. I must admit that I expected an arrogant Cersei look or quote during the movie, just because I was so used to seeing her in that role, but of course that didn't happen. Other than that, Lena Headey is a brilliant actress.
The children weren't too great, the guy was okay but the girl was rather annoying. In my opinion she over-acted a bit, and her character was also quite annoying.

The scares weren't very surprising, actually, they were rather predictable. But besides that I didn't thought it was a bad movie. I've read many negative reviews, but seriously, it's a decent movie with an excellent concept. Perhaps the performance of this concept wasn't too well, a bit predictable and such but really, it wasn't bad.

The so called 'freaks' of this movie were actually rather scary with their masks on. They reminded me a lot of the ones in The Strangers, and I'm personally a big fan of The Strangers. I think that masks overall make a movie more interesting and more scary. The attacker is unknown that way which makes it much more a mystery.
The scenes with the girls were the most scary to me, their giggling the entire time was very unsettling.

The Purge is a very decent movie in my opinion. It's a lot less overhyped compared to The Conjuring and personally I liked The Purge a lot more. I don't exactly know why I keep comparing these two movies, perhaps because they came out around the same time, but anyway, The Conjuring was a lot less original compared with this one.
Great acting and an interesting concept. Perhaps not the most impressing scares or storytelling, but overall it was very good.

My personal rate: 7/10


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The Purge: Anarchy
Originally written on 17 November 2013

IMDB rate: 6,5

Genre: Survival

Starring: Kiele Sanchez, Frank Grillo, Zach Gilford

I might be the only person around who actually liked the first Purge movie. I thought it was a great idea for a movie, to have one day where people could do whatever they wanted to do. Sure, the first movie lacked a lot, but it was still entertaining and it contained very good acting. The second movie is good as well, in my opinion it was even better than the first movie. 

The second Purge however is a lot more like what people actually expected from The Purge. In the first movie you'd follow one rich family who would try to survive to night, this all is set in their big and fairly safe home. The problem with this approach is that you have no idea how bad The Purge actually is, since you're mostly watching a family hide from the intruders and defend themselves. In the second movie you can watch how stuff is going down in the big city, in the streets. So no safe home this time, which gave an interesting perspective. 

Here's what it's about:

A couple are driving home when their car breaks down just as the Purge commences. Meanwhile, a police sergeant goes out into the streets to get revenge on the man who killed his son, and a mother and daughter  run from their home after assailants destroy it. The five people meet up as they attempt to survive the night in Los Angeles. 

There was an interesting addition to this movie, this being that rich people hired other people to kidnap poor people. This is because they wanted to kill random people, without them risking the danger of going into the streets to search for people to kill themselves. Also, some poor people sell themselves to be killed for shitloads of money so that their families have some money for the future. I thought it was a great addition to the storyline since it seems pretty likely that this could actually happen if the Purge was real. 

With these innocent people on the streets you get a great insight in how the Purge actually works. Some people are on the streets because they want to kill one specific person, while others are on the streets to just randomly slaughter people. The innocent group of five we follow is trying to seek shelter until the Purge is over, and while doing this we see people who have set traps, people who actually chase them around town and people who kidnapped them to drop them with rich people. It's brilliant to see how crazy a city can get when they have the ability to murder everyone they encounter. 

I thought the acting was less good compared to the previous part. Lena Headey, Ethan Hawke and Rhys Wakefield did an amazing job in the first Purge movie. I must admit though that I disliked the acting of the children greatly in that movie. In this movie I was especially annoyed by Kiele Sanchez and Zach Gilford, they didn't act well and their entire character was just annoying. Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo and Zoë Soul all did great jobs though, great characters as well with some good chemistry. 

I thought The Purge: Anarchy was a great follow-up for the first The Purge movie. It was great to both see a home invasion and the street terror of The Purge. It's a solid sequel which actually gives new insights in the concept of 'purging', instead of just continuing the concept of home invasions. I liked it a lot.

My rate: 7/10