Also, before I being, this movie gave me more reasons to consider something I had been mulling over: horror and sci fi are very closely linked. They usually have some kind of premise (what if all people in the world started killing each other?) but simply take it in different directions. Sci fi movies explore the premise, while horror movies use it as a means to kill people.
So, lets begin.
The premise of The Purge is that somehow, an American government sanctions a 12 hour period where all crimes are allowed (except against top government officials). There is no explanation about how such a situation could possibly have been allowed to occur, especially since such a situation could arguably said to violate human rights and cost america all of its allies, making it hard for us to obtain oil. Anyway. Part of the premise, so I was willing to give them that.
There is a limit against the types of weapons that may be used during the purge. However law enforcement is suspended (and law enforcement officers are probably not "level 10" government officials, making them fair game) so there is no way for that rule to be enforced.
Despite all crimes being legal, no one appears interested in bank heists. Only murder. Specifically, risky murder because others are also out of commit murder. In addition, it seems more likely that people would be more interested in finding women to gangrape violently. Also, there was no mention of the hedonistic parties that would probably ensue.
Fire, police, and ambulance/hospital services are all suspended during this period. It would seem an obvious course of action to make sure that every member of an upper class family is familiar with basic first aid and basic martial arts and basic firearms training. The characters, a typical upper class family, have none of this. They have a random collection of firearms. They have no armor.
During the purge, everyone just hangs out in their homes, which all appears to have a simple security system with a single point of failure. They don't leave the country. Also, no corporations appear to have been created in order to offer people shelter, protected by private security forces that can be trusted because of their performance in past purges.
In fast, there doesn't appear to exist any private security. Instead of locking rich houses down, why not have private security companies patrol areas? Why not have privatized medical and fire personnel that are hired by communities? Why aren't their lockdown hotels that allow people to rent a room for the night? The movie tried to add this context where some people argue that the purge affects the poor disproportionately, but such hotels could be done on a budget.
When the characters fired guns, they somehow had the herculean strength to get off a large number of rounds without the kickback affecting their aim. Of course this happens in almost every movie humankind has made, so I guess I can't really fault them for it.
The father is a salesman of home security systems. He himself uses one of the systems that his company sells, and has sold the same system that he uses to all of his neighboors. His neightboors, who are just as rich as him, resent him for selling them a security system. I don't know what the fuck their problem could have been. They could have bought from a different salesman, or from a different company, or not bought a security system. Instead, they chose to buy one from him and be mad about it. This ridiculous sub plot is the basis of the surprise ending.
The plot basically begins during the purge, because a small child knows the code to unlock the security system and unlocks it when the father isn't around to allow a stranger in the house.
In a side plot that really wasn't necessary, the daughters teenage boyfriend thought that murdering her father would be an acceptable way to ease some mild drama between the boyfriend and the dad. He apparently did not think the girl would mind if he killed her father.
The man they allowed inside was being hunted by a gang of teenagers who threatend to breach the house's security system if the family does not deliver the stranger to them. All of the characters assume the gang can be taken at their word, and that handing over the stranger will actually guarantee their safety.
Despite the life or death nature of the situation, both of the children do the opposite of their parents instructions at almost every opportunity.
At close to the climax of the movie, they are binding the stranger with duct tape, and they have only moments to hand him over to the teenagers. This is the point when they sit down for a morality crisis tea party. All of the characters other than the father say things like "look at what you're doing! oh no so terrible." Everyone presents a one-sided emotional plea that would have made perfect sense if the Dad was trying out a new hobby where he ties people up and kills them, but made no sense when the entire family was facing a dire ultimatum.
So, effectively, they first alienate the stranger by hunting him down, and THEN they don't even make use of him as a bargaining chip. They could have increase the number of armed adults from 2 to 3, but instead he is just tied up when the teenage gang breaches the security and enters the house.
The family leaves all of the pictures on the walls so that the teenage gang know how many family members to hunt down.
The family fails to play loud music or anything else that might harm the gangs ability to find them.
Instead of taking the high ground to kill some of the teenagers, or forming real defensive positions, or creating distractions, the father and mother stand around with firearms. The son briefly hides in the basement where he waves a flashlight around to make himself easy to find, and the daughter just goes missing off screen, so that she can have random scenes being attacked, or maybe be a brief deus ex machina, I don't know which. Instead of letting the teenagers come to them, the father and mother wander around the house so that someone can get the drop on them.
With the exception of the father who is knifed while passing through a doorway that he somehow failed to clear while wielding a shotgun, all of the members of the family are repeatedly attacked and seconds away from death before an off screen character shoots the person about to make the kill.
When the teenage gang members start dying, the rest of the gang presses the attack, even though it is clear that the family is armed enough to put up a fight and present a serious threat.
Then, at the climax, neighboors--the ones who are still mad about choosing to buy security systems--show up. They are not wearing body armor but suits and cocktail dresses. They walk in the house and shoot the teenagers. Despite all of the difficulty the father and mother had with combat, the neighboors don't have any trouble as they walk in and somehow always end up behind where the teenagers are facing.
A heart monitor watch is introduced early in the movie. It appears to have been placed there for no other reason that to include the heart beeping trope that they usually do in hospitals. As that scene played out, I couldn't think of anything else other than the fact that the script writers deliberately planted the plot device early in the movie, and actually went out of their way just to include something cliche that should have been avoided.
Everything I wrote and will write doesn't matter compared to this: there is apparently no ill affects in society from the purges. Magically, no one has PTSD, or lifelong emotional problems caused by memories of watching people kill, almost being killed, or being raped mercilessly.
The reason I hated it the most, though, was that as with all horror movies I couldn't identify with a single character. No one behaved as I would. No one. Everyone was a giant pussy, a psycopath, or an idiot.
First of all, this happens once a year. Leave the fucking country. Can't leave the country? Travel to an undiclosed location. Can't travel? Create a private hotel with a private security company that is paid to protect the guests. Open an entire fucking chain. When the super secure hotel is not being used during the purge, it can double as a normal hotel.
Hotel unavailable because of lame plot device? Stay with father. Safer in greater numbers.
Are police, emergency and other services going to be unavailable? Guess what. EVERYONE IN THE FAMILY IS TAKING EMT CLASSES. Also, everyone in the family is learning Krav Maga. Also, everyone in the family is going to the shooting range.
Also, in addittion to the family arsenal of weapons, we will have body armor.
In addition of the ineffective metal sheets that would be impractical to build into a houses architecture, we will have a panic room. People under 18 who do not listen to their parents during life threatening situations will not have the codes to disarm the security system. Also, the houses security system will not be a completely on or off situation. It will be possible to only open the front door.
In addition, the upper floors of the house will have build in sniper nests, so that it is possible to fire out of the house.
In addition, all of the entrances to the house will have flame-based booby traps.
Again, BODY FUCKING ARMOR. Also, flash bang grenades. And caltrops.
Also, if I was faced with the ultimatum of handing over a stranger by an arbitrary deadline, or having my entire family slaughtered, the optimal strategy is to obtain the stranger and plan to hand him over at the last second before the deadline. Also, explain to the stranger your desire to not kill him and solicit his help in brainstorming a better solution. This approach is best, because both choices in the ultimatum involve the strangers death, and this strategy makes those two outcomes similar enough that there is little practical value in choosing one over the other. The only different is, by cooperating with the family, the stranger has a better chance of survival. While executing this plan, I would most likely attempt to devise an alternate solution. We could:
0. Make it clear to everyone that our survival depends on our actions in the next few hours, and that when we are down to the wire, we are not going to drop what we are doing to debate the wider moral implications. In addition, I would explain that the arbitrary choices I make are the ones I've calculated for our best chance of survival, and in no way represent the right or moral choice in that situation. We may be making the evil choice. We may be making the righteous choice. Too bad! When a madman puts my family under a ridiculous and survival related ultimatum, the entire universe loses the privilege of expecting me to behave in a way that is consistent with any moral standard or belief system of any person or culture. I do not mean that my survival supercedes such beliefs, only that I may choose to do the wrong thing. Also we will not be stopping in the middle of anything to have weird out of place conversations about right and wrong. Conversations like that only happen while making plans.
1. Go to the second floor, or anywhere we can make a hole, and start sniping the teenagers to reduce their numbers and so that they can't walk around the yard freely. Start with their leader. Or,
2. Open up just one entrance, so that the teenagers can enter but only on our terms, and we have made whatever preparations necessary involving furniture, weapons and booby traps in order to give ourselves the advantage. Or,
3. Wait until they enter and set the house on fire. Or,
4. Fight our way out of the house and make a run for it. Distractions could be used to allow the children to escape. Or the parents and stranger take off in different directions while allowing the children to hide in one place, in a corner, guns facing outward. Presumably the gang would lose interest in the house once their quarry has left it. Or,
5. Create a ruse based on the premise that the stranger is in control of the situation inside the house. Possibly have him threaten to kill himself if they enter.
In conclusion, the movie was phenominaly stupid because:
- the premise was phenominaly stupid
- the realization of the premise made no sense
- most killings were predictable
- the survival main characters was mostly effected by deus ex machina
- the characters' behavior made no sense
- all of the main characters make poor decisions during the entire movie
- most of the dialog did not make me cringe
Ironically, this movie is still less stupid than Sunshine.
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