Film Review- The Purge: Election Year

The Purge: Election Year, directed by James DeMonaco, is the sequel to 2014's The Purge: Anarchy and the third instalment in the franchise overall. It follows Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell) a Presidential candidate who tries to survive the attempts made on her life by the current administration on the annual Purge Night with help of her bodyguard, franchise alumni Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo). Now, I'm not particularly well-versed with this series having never seen the second film and falling asleep about three-quarters of the way through the first. What I do remember is how well the advertising for the initial movie had sold this concept to me, but I do also recall feeling that it just didn't flesh this idea out enough. The original story didn't serve the premise well and was surprisingly boring in my humble opinion. Having done my research on Anarchy (I never found the time to watch it) I can see that the mistakes made by the first film seem to have been rectified in the second outing (which encapsulated much more of this universe and gave us a story on a larger scale) giving me some hope that Election Year would at the very least be watchable. 

I didn't go into this film with high expectations and as such I got some enjoyment out of this movie and left the theatre contented. It was a fun time at the cinema and it was thoroughly decent if you take it all with a pinch of salt. In saying this, The Purge: Election Year is a good "B" movie at best.

I liked many things about this film, particularly its themes. The film aims to explore corruption in US politics, the role of hate in the electoral system, class and racial divides in society, as well as asking the question of if it is ever the right decision to put away our morals in order to achieve a greater good. I don't know about you, but in a small-budget thriller/horror movie like this, I think that it's applaudable and very pleasing to see that they did try to give the story some substance, even if the execution was a bit heavy handed. The protagonists of the story, particularly the supporting players, are all captivating characters and as such elevate the material. Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell, Mykelti Williamson, Joseph Soria and Betty Gabriel all give strong performances as our main group, forming an emotional connection with the audience and forcing us to care about what was on the screen. Each character is layered, with distinct personalities and history's which helps adds a sense of intrigue to their true motives and plants just small grains of doubt in the head of the viewer.

Yet, the filmmakers do not give us nearly enough organic character moments during the latter stages of the film, possibly due to a very-messy story which substitutes in cheap action for the franchise's famed tense jump scares or gory horror. The dialogue is very on-the-nose and the acting of some of the minor cast (particularly the Reverend and his boss) is laughable at points. The movie also drags a bit during the second act, leaving me looking at my watch as the plot continues to move very slowly on the screen. DeMonaco also fails to create any sense of real and immediate danger, and at no point did I feel that Roan or Barnes were under any real threat of perishing, leading to my boredom as the story progressed. On a final note, the film is also crafted poorly at times, with a particular example being the extreme over-lighting during the daytime scenes in Joe's store.

Overall, The Purge: Election Year is probably a good movie to watch on Netflix one night if there's nothing else on and all your wanting is a fun film that's going to give you a few jump scares, lots of violence and a few terrible moments that will make you chuckle. It's not a film that'll probably watch again in a hurry (and I do hope The Purge franchise calls it a day after this) but it is by no means the worst thing I've seen in the cinema this year and I would give it credit for stretching its 10 million dollar budget as far as it did.

Score: 5.8/10