Admittedly, the original The Purge film left a lot of us feeling unsatisfied, but one has to wonder how much of that was us putting too much pressure on the film to be something more than it ever intended to be. Ultimately, it’s a fine home invasion film with a little too much social commentary bringing it down, but it does have another kickass performance from Ethan Hawke during his horror renaissance. When The Purge:Anarchy came out, it felt like a kick in the pants because it was what we had anticipated the first film to be. Put an undeniably charismatic Frank Grillo in there and you have yourself a bona fide good time horror sequel. There was a lot more social commentary in this one, but it felt more organic, whereas, in the original, it felt misplaced. This Independence Day weekend we have ourselves The Purge:Election Year and it is full of social commentary at a time when we really need it. Horror always reflects the current fears of the world and Election Year really got under my skin.
After a lot of set up with the multiple characters that will all, inevitably, end up spending the night of the Purge together, we start the action off with a mercenary group, made up of white supremacists, who have been tasked with delivering Senator Roan alive to the midnight mass of the NFFA, the evil entity behind all of this Purge madness. Now that Barnes and Roan have been forced onto the streets of D.C., the action and terror can begin. I have to admit that I was doubtful they could provide a good reason for Leo being trapped outside with a group of hangers on yet again, but this storyline works well. I was also concerned about having seen too much in the trailers, but it turns out that what you see in the trailers is mostly window dressing. And I say this as a good thing. Much like Y Tu Mama Tambien showed a country from the confines of a car on a road trip, Election Year employees the same tactic as our group rides around in Laney’s triage van.
People purging because they feel slighted by someone, people purging for fun, for justice, for peace of mind and people purging because they’re on vacation all make appearances. The idea of murder tourism was a great one and an idea that I absolutely bought into immediately. In fact, the scariest thing about Election Year is the underlying anger, hatred and frustration that is all too palpable in our world right this minute. As an American who is still completely gobsmacked that Mr. Trump is one of our presumptive presidential nominees, Election Year almost feels like a foretelling of our imminent future. A government run by old, rich white dudes that, clearly, have very specific racist leanings and the inevitable anger that this creates in the minorities and disenfranchised. Also, Marcos is exactly what the average Mexican immigrant looks like, a hard worker who is just trying to make a better life for himself. When he quips that growing up in Juarez was like living through the Purge everyday, it felt like a much needed slap in the face for Americans who take their cushy lives for granted.
Ultimately, Election Year ups the ante on Anarchy in both the action and the social commentary. At a wee bit long of a run time, it still manages to be engaging through out and the set up for the inevitable sequel also feels perfectly timely. Election Year isn’t doing anything new or mind blowing, but it’s a fun time at the movies and the really scary bits are the parts that feel the most completely believable because if you don’t think America could look like this in the near future, you aren’t paying attention. For me, that’s good horror.
Leave a Reply