The Purge 3: Election Year

                The Purge: Election Year

This is a GOOD movie and THEATER WORTHY

           Another great sequel to The Purge story. While the original was a clichéd disaster with even more clichéd characters and BAD cinematography, the sequel it spawned, The Purge 2: Anarchy (2014), became an amazing blend of fat paced action mixed with scenes of hell like horror, death, and torture. In the first sequel we got to explore this twisted dark version of America from the violent city streets rather than from that of a single household. Introduced to new concepts, like the government purging trucks, or the way the rich purged through “financial trade”, it became a hit sequel giving life to the story. It was so successful that it paved a path for this, The Purge 3: Election Year!

                I would say that this movie is just as good as Anarchy, yet it doesn’t quite surpass it. It really felt different from Anarchy in multiple ways, most notably from it’s comedy. There was a lot more humor here in Election Year than there was in Anarchy and a lot of it resided in the beginning of the film. This was very beneficial in that it lightened the mood and really seemed to loosen me up before the start of the purging. This created a sensation of shock, like going from cold to hot in the blink of an eye.

                A lot of the comedy, at the beginning and throughout, is provided to us by the character Dixon, played by Mykelti Williamson. He plays an everyday average Joe who owns his own little store in the inner city. He does a lot of race jokes but they’re tasteful, they’re harmless, and more importantly, they feel true to his character. He’s definitely one of my favorite characters from the movie, along with another named Laney. Laney is a tough and tiny former gang banger turned everyday citizen. She’s interesting not only for the fact that her character’s has one of those mysterious dark pasts that left a deep dark stain upon her life, but that she helps introduce a new concept to the film. One which will be touched on shortly. We also see the return of Leo, the vigilante purger from Anarchy. Played by Frank Grillo, he’s now put in charge of protecting a senator who could very well end the purge once and for all. In so doing she has painted a very large target upon her back . . . a target made of blood!

                As stated before, the previous film, Anarchy, introduced a lot of cool new concepts which the original movie, The Purge (2013), didn’t even come close to touching upon. Gangs of actual gangs instead of psycho spoiled rich kids, vehicles and death instruments that would make Mad Max feel at home, creative costumes of death and despair rarely seen outside of nightmares, it took us to a deeper and darker place than The Purge did. In that respect the same has happened once again. There were four new concepts which stood out amongst the rest. First off we see the use of personal drones for the sake of purging. With all of the drone controversy coming to light in recent years that makes the use of these drones to seek and kill all the more interesting for the film. There is also now such things in this world as medical war vans which Laney takes part in operating. It is like that of the government death trucks introduced in the second film but it’s polar opposite. While those are fitted to kill these are fitted to save. Also, and ever so briefly, there is also a victim disposal truck. While it is only touched on and not made clear if it is but a trap or a legitimate service it was an intriguing idea. All three concepts alone expands the imagination as to the possibilities in what could happen on the night of The Purge. Then there is my favorite new concept. The coolest concept to me is what they deem in the film as “murder tourism”. When Disney first opened up people came from all around the world to experience it, and now, in this world, The Purge is the new attraction! Suddenly the world LOVES America . . . at least for one night out of the year. And while the guillotine that you saw in the previews isn’t technically a new “concept” in the film rather than a classic way to deal out death, the guillotine does have a link to the murder tourism concept. If you know your basic history you might guess where these tourist hail from…

                Now, while the film is as creative as ever with its human monsters, how they look, how

they act, and what they say, it doesn’t have as much to show as the previous sequel did. The second film really dove down deep into how depraved humans can get when there aren’t any rules or consequences. It focused more on the purge itself rather than that of the story (Leo’s revenge plot for his son’s death), whereas this sequel is more about the story than the purge itself. It’s reversed you see. That means we see more of the survival story between Leo and the senator, along with the rest of their fate shaped motley crew, rather than the displays of human depravity.

                With that said they still get crazy creative. When the purge starts at the sound of the horn it feels like you’re at the peak of a roller coaster’s first drop. I myself had some butterflies in my belly, my eyes grew wide, and my anticipation was crazy for the wild ride to come! Before the purge you get a glimpse into some of the monsters that you’ll soon get to meet.

                The acting, on behalf of the purgers, is absolutely monstrous . . . and in this case, that is a good thing. My favorite example lies in the kids we meet the day of the purge. We see how spoiled kids act when let lose as monsters up the streets. They don’t just want the world for nothing and expect it to happen, but they want the taste of blood lying upon their breath as well.

You'll STILL jump!!!

Director James DeMonaco (left)

               To sum up what left there was I enjoyed they were the jump scares and the mix of horror and humor. When it comes to horror I am not a fan of repetitive use of jump scares. It feels like that of an amateur and screams of desperation from the writer and/or director (in this case both one in the same), and can get boring very fast. However, director James DeMonaco (director of the whole Purge trilogy) does a great job of setting up the scares while the actors do an equally better job of executing them. Even when you know the scare is coming it still winds up making you jump. Don’t worry though, you won’t see most of them coming anyway!

                Lastly there are the funny one-liners that accompany us throughout the film. As bad and as horrific as everything gets to be, seeing the sense of humor that some of the characters provide creates a sense of normalcy to their situation. As entertaining as it is this also makes the nature of their lives all the more horrific.

                With all of the things I did like there were two main things I didn’t like. One was the amount of close up (CU) camera shots to random parts of the face. Its successful at first in how unsettling it can make you feel but soon it just becomes annoying. A close up of the darkened eyes at an acute downward angle followed by five to ten similar shots one after the other, it just doesn’t work. Fortunately this problem is only isolated to a few scenes and yet unfortunately they are also some of the more key scenes.

                Secondly there is the problem with the religious aspect. It’s a good concept and I do get it, its just, they quickly go way too over the top with the concept. The first movie established the purge as just their simple reality, the way things were. The second movie established the purge as a crooked government scheme (shocker right), and this third one uses the religious aspect to show that those in power have convinced themselves that they are justified … perhaps even by a higher power. The problem is like that of Ben Stiller’s in Tropical Thunder, the “Never go full retard” rule. Well this religious angle they went with in the film, it went full retard. You saw the “Purge and purify” scene in the previews right? That was great, the concept and the writing, the delivery and atmosphere, it totally worked but the more these religious people lose control over their purge the more they cling to their religious justification until it just gets weird. I will say though, there is this priest in the movie and while he acts like a Sloth from The Goonies at first he winds up acting like a super creepy badass priest from a Resident Evil game or something. I mean full on walking through bullets with a complete and total dead face type creepy badass. You’ll enjoy him.

                As I final note, and without giving away the ending, I will say that the last five to ten seconds could be big. With two successful sequels in the bag, no matter how humble the beginnings (The Purge), there is no reason why this story couldn’t continue. Now, upon viewing the ending I thought there was nowhere to go for another sequel, that this would be it. However, the last few seconds of the film could prove to be a true stroke of genius in terms of writing. Within a few seconds the ending goes from “the end of the story” to quite possibly another sequel. And I will give you a hint as to what I believe the next sequel could be … The Purge: Revolution … or War.

Enjoy!!!