{"id":24159,"date":"2013-06-12T14:11:33","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T18:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=24159"},"modified":"2013-06-12T14:11:33","modified_gmt":"2013-06-12T18:11:33","slug":"the-purge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2013\/06\/the-purge\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Purge\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe Purge\u201d is a moderately effective horror movie that covers the familiar ground of the home-invasion movie while embracing a unique setting. It\u2019s ten years in the future and a new government program called The Purge allows for a twelve-hour period every year where all crime is legal. The idea is that The Purge encourages people to get their violent tendencies out of their system so they\u2019ll be better behaved the rest of the year. Of course, the downside is that people are just as likely to be victimized as they are to be vindicated.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s silly to think that such a program could ever work. First of all, the film focuses almost entirely on violent crimes instead of the ones that people are more likely to commit, like theft. The inevitable sudden shifts in wealth would cripple the economy. But getting back to the violent crimes; there are way too many people with a moral opposition to violence that goes beyond mere legality. Some are opposed because of religion, some because of the Golden Rule, some just aren\u2019t that angry, some are squeamish, and plenty are going to be too scared to go out and participate. But the Sandin family is in danger from people who aren\u2019t afraid of the consequences, and that\u2019s all this movie really needs.<\/p>\n

The Sandins are a very wealthy, but otherwise typical American family. James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) sells security systems, and The Purge tends to be a busy time of year for him. His wife Mary (Lena Headey) has little to do but socialize with jealous neighbors. Teenage daughter Zoey (Adelaide Kane) is moving too fast in her relationship with her adult boyfriend. Charlie (Max Burkholder) is the tech genius son who can\u2019t shake his sense of compassion. The family is planning to wait out the Purge in their secure home, but Charlie takes pity on a desperate stranger in the street (Edwin Hodge) and disables the security system long enough for him to take shelter in the house. I have to question the stranger\u2019s wisdom in drawing attention to himself in the lighted street instead of hiding in the background of the darkened neighborhood.<\/p>\n

The family soon learns why the stranger was so desperate. He\u2019s being pursued by a group of rich snobs who are determined to kill him for being useless to society. The snobs wear masks that are the scariest I\u2019ve seen in some time. They\u2019re basically distorted human faces minus the eyes. Oh how the no-eyes look has given me sleepless nights over the years. The leader of the snobs (Rhys Wakefield) doesn\u2019t wear a mask, but his real face is plenty creepy. \u00a0He gives the Sandins an ultimatum: hand over the stranger or the snobs will break in and kill everybody.<\/p>\n

The rest of the film is pretty much the same as any number of horror movies where the characters have to avoid killers in a darkened house. But the appeal of the film doesn\u2019t lie with the Sandins, it lies with The Purge itself. The society of the film encourages acts of violence, and we the audience feel encouraged to enjoy that violence. I\u2019ll admit I cheered for a few violent scenes myself. If you think you can enjoy these scenes, you might like \u201cThe Purge\u201d. If you detest violent action, then you\u2019re probably not planning to see \u201cThe Purge\u201d anyway and are right to have made up your mind ahead of time.<\/p>\n

The film ends with newscasters proclaiming this to be the most successful Purge yet. Undoubtedly there will be another Purge, which means we\u2019ll probably get another \u201cPurge\u201d. The film made nearly $40 million this past weekend on a budget of only $3 million. I have to believe that we\u2019ll see several sequels, perhaps annually like \u201cSaw\u201d and \u201cParanormal Activity\u201d. Love it, hate it, or if you\u2019re in the middle like me, there\u2019s no denying that \u201cThe Purge\u201d is the future of horror.<\/p>\n

Two Stars out of Five<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Purge\u201d is playing at the Hershey Cocoaplex. The film is rated R for strong disturbing violence and some language. Its running time is 85 minutes.<\/p>\n

Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver   \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe Purge\u201d is a moderately effective horror movie that covers the familiar ground of the home-invasion movie while embracing a unique setting. It\u2019s ten years… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}