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The obvious irony here is that the very mechanisms and institutions James relied upon to avoid Purge Night have seemingly failed him. Now, he and his wife are forced to decide – in front of their children – just what side of the fence they’re on with this whole “Purge” thing. What I enjoyed about this is the not so subtle suggestion that the act of living within a community indebts one to it. And therefore, there IS no opting out. Considering the times in which we live, that’s certainly food for thought.

Unfortunately the real meat and potatoes of the story happen off-screen. The nature of allegory makes it critical to establish the rules of your universe as clearly as possible and preferably early on. What in the blue hell happened in America to make us all believe that the solution was a 12 hour, USDA approved Meatpocalypse? How, exactly, did we go from a moderately stable, representative based Republic to a thinly veiled fascist Thunderdome? What’s the deal with these New Founding Fathers? That seems like the real story here.

But for what it is, The Purge wrings as much as it can out of what it has to work with. It takes place (surely due to budget constraints) almost entirely in the Sandin home. It’s an absurdly huge monument to suburban self-indulgence whose driveway alone could swallow my townhouse. The symbolism is obvious, and the way the family struggles with it is equally clear. We’re all responsible for the society we live in, by virtue of the fact that we live IN it.

I get it. But as I watched, the world I was being asked to accept was so fundamentally and morally alien that without a fairer measure of backstory, I couldn’t get my mind off it. Nonetheless, I found myself deep in thought for a long time after watching.

But I can’t help but think that with more effective world-building, this might have been something truly groundbreaking, rather than just an interesting diversion on my way to the next borderline exploitation revival. There have been a couple of sequels – without Hawke and Headey – and they’ve done quite well. The Purge is a legitimate franchise. But thanks to that first missed opportunity, it’ll never quite reach it’s potential. Still, if you’re gonna swing for the fence, and you can’t quite round third in time, at least make it to home plate in that brief nanosecond AFTER the ball.

You know, when we can still at least salute you for your Purge.

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