The Purge – 2013 – once a year all crime is legal

The Purge might not be the most scary film in the world but the concept is horrifying! Once day each year all crimes are legal, including murder. There are a couple of rules of course. For instance you might not use any weapon and you might not kill certain officials. Well, I think that’s about it. The reason for the purging activities is to cleans the country from unwanted elements of course. It’s a fascist thought since the rich can afford to install protection systems and the homeless are easy targets. All men are not equal under the law in this society.

We focus on a family that have this luxury. They can lock themselves in and they can watch the purging via live streams right inside their living room. So far so good. But when a bloody man comes shouting for help in the street, the young son lets him in. He shouldn’t have done that. What comes after is a nightmare for this family. The hurt man is followed by purgers. People who take their right to purge serious. They want the family to throw the man out or they will break in and kill the entire family. All hell breaks loose!

I can think of other crimes that might be committed on such an amnesty night but the film only covers the murder part. Why doesn’t anyone steal things, rape someone or just vandalise something. There ought to be many people wanting to wreck official building to create chaos and anarchy. I understand that this is a way to focus on the most horrifying act though. The murder is the final boundary to cross.

From what I heard about this before I saw it should be a real nasty movie. I didn’t see that. I wasn’t too impressed. It was a nice movie and I enjoyed it, but I expected more. I didn’t expect it to take place inside a house all of the time. It becomes and under siege movie. Nothing wrong with that but it isn’t what I expected. Or course it’s a revolting thought that your neighbours might take out their oppressed aggression on this particular day and kill you.