CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS
One night a year, all crime is legal.
Directed by James DeMonaco
Reviewed by Deep Red
Aka American Nightmare (France)
What with the imminent release of The Purge: Anarchy [2014], if it’s not out already, I thought I’d better get ’round to giving this one a watch; this is still a brand new film to me. I’m sure most of you have seen it.
Stars Ethan Hawke as James Sandin, didn’t know he was in it, I liked him in Sinister [2012].
OK, the premise of the film is that one night a year in the U.S. from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. all crime is legal, unless you happen to be a government official ranking 10 or higher in which case you can’t be harmed, according to the rules. Also, all emergency services are suspended during this time period. So, it sounds like a great idea for a film, the possibilities are endless, so why, at a glance, all the bad reviews? In a word, being the premise is so huge, expectations….
So is it good? Is it bad? What is it?
Well, it starts an hour or so before kick off and we meet James Sandin and his family, his wife Mary (Lena Headey), daughter Zoey (Adelaide Kane) and her boyfriend Henry (Tony Oller), son Charlie (Max Burkholder).. Just your average well-off American family with big fucking security monitors so they can watch the fun from the safety of their own home. Anyway, they go into lockdown with their state-of-the-art security system armed but obviously it’s not going to be that easy for the Sandins.
Feeling sorry for a wounded man he sees on the security monitors, Charlie temporarily disables the security system and lets the man (Edwin Hodge) inside. Anyway, a bunch of people wearing silly masks (“terrifying guises”) and carrying weapons decend on the Sandins’ house looking for the “homeless pig”….
The problem is, this film’s focus is on one family and their experience so the scale of the concept is partially lost. The son with his remote control ‘Terminator doll’ (?) was a bit misguided, maybe an attempt to show this was the future, I really don’t know but it was annoying whatever it was about. The film is also very glossy but that’s not such a bad thing, it just left me thinking, well, this isn’t really going to go anywhere particularly interesting from early on; I wasn’t completely right about this. But, on the other hand, it’s a neat little thriller that has some good scenes and manages some tension and it’s well-shot. It’s a bit lack lustre in the script department but the acting was OK.
There was probably too much hype relating to the whole concept of The Purge itself in the advertising. I was expecting much more about that idea on a bigger scale, maybe the sequel will tackle that. I can’t help but think if this idea was in the hands of Cronenberg or Romero or whoever, maybe made in the 70s or 80s, that it would have been a much more satisfactory experience in that respect.
For what it is, it’s very good. I’m glad a got a copy on Blu-ray as I am often in the mood to rewatch a decent thriller and that’s what this is essentially, it’s very watchable. I got into it and I wanted to see how it’d turn out and I could definitely watch it again. The leader of the silly-mask brigade played by Rhys Wakefield wasn’t quite as threatening as I would’ve liked, he came across as an annoying public school boy type really, his female masked companions certainly came across as much more eerie and I would’ve liked to see more of them actually.
Violence, gore is set on stun rather than kill but there’s enough action to keep it entertaining. I can’t wait for the sequel, I’m really interested to see where they go with it. Good film! Loved it….
Also stars Arija Bareikis as Grace Ferrin, Chris Mulkey as Mr. Halverson, Tisha French as Mrs. Halverson..
