If you want to enjoy a “Purge” movie, you have to drink the Kool-Aid. Not the Kool-Aid the concession stand sells, but the Kool-Aid the filmmakers are trying to convince you to swallow. I’ve seen all three of them, and I’m not drinking it. But “The Purge: Election Year” at least made me raise the cup to my mouth.
Before I delve into the new film, here’s the Kool-Aid writer and director James DeMonaco wants you to sip: In the near future, people are committing more and more violent crimes. To stem the rising tide, the leaders of the U.S. try something drastic: legalizing all unlawful activity, including murder, for one night a year. This will allow everyone to work off their aggression, greed, and perverse appetites, they say, and then everybody will behave for the next 364 days. Amazingly, it works.
Yeah, that could totally happen. People would go ape wild one night a year and then play nice until the Purge rolls around again. Also, insurance companies would cover the costs of the damage. And the process of rebuilding a damaged infrastructure year after year wouldn’t take its toll. Seriously, it could totally happen. With the government’s blessing.
DeMonaco is surely aware of the bad logic in these movies. So what is he up to? I believe he’s simply indulging in “a bit of the old ultraviolence,” to quote a favorite droog of mine. (Pat yourself on the back if you caught the reference.) If DeMonaco is trying to say anything, perhaps it’s that we’re heading toward a moral vacuum if we don’t change direction as a species. Or maybe he’s saying, “See? Things could be worse.”
I dunno. I haven’t sipped the Kool-Aid.
As “Election Year” begins, it’s become apparent that the rich are using the Purge to thin out the poor, who are the most victimized during the annual event. This has given rise to a Presidential candidate who is challenging the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) for the highest office in the country - Charlie Roan, whose family was killed 18 years ago during the Purge. (DeMonaco does something subtle that makes Roan a dubious character, then never brings it up again. I thought this was clever. If you see the film, listen closely to the dialogue in the opening scene. DeMonaco must believe even good candidates are flawed.)
A senator, Roan is gaining ground against the NFFA’s candidate, Minister Edwidge Owens, in the polls. And the ruling powers are scared. So they put a target on Roan’s back.
Knowing this, Roan’s head of security, Leo Barnes, orders her home locked down and surrounded by bodyguards as the annual Purge begins. A pair of insiders betray Roan and Barnes, and a mad chase through the U.S. capital ensues.
You’d think surviving the Purge would be as easy as holing up somewhere safe, or crossing the border into Canada for a mini-vacation, but no. The characters in these movies make remarkably bad decisions, and as a result, keep winding up outside, where murderous thugs are waiting. There’s a lot of running around, and several gunfights, but DeMonaco doesn’t have much cinematic flair as a director, so the action is loud but visually flat. DeMonaco shoots these movies fast and cheap, and it shows.
The glue that holds “Election Year” together is its characters. I liked Joe, the aging owner of a deli. He’s nice, and people gravitate to him. (He also has the best lines in the movie.) I also liked Laney, an EMT who refuses to take Purge night off. (She has the best kills in the movie.) And I even enjoyed the teenage shoplifter who warns Joe that his number will be up on Purge night. She played evil well.
I also have to give credit to DeMonaco, who wrote a script that maintains an internal logic, even if that logic is bonkers. I hate when a movie establishes rules, and then breaks them for the sake of convenience.
Earlier, I said DeMonaco might be trying to make a statement with the “Purge” movies. But I’ve changed my mind. Instead, I believe these films are intentionally bad. I think a consortium of movie studios makes and releases one every year as a sacrificial lamb to be hammered by critics. After taking all of their aggression out on one terrible film, these critics are then expected to be nice to every other movie the studios release that year. It’s the only explanation for the appearance of “The Purge” after the release of the last “Twilight” movie.
But I have bad news for those studios: I didn’t drink the Kool-Aid.