The First Purge

The First Purge

Starring Y'lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Jovian Wade, Mugga

Directed by Gerard McMurray

The Story:
America is in a decline.  Poverty is up, crime is rampant, and it's in this political climate that a new political party - the New Founding Fathers of America - rises to power, electing their man as the new President.  They begin a social experiment known as The Purge at Staten Island - giving residents $5,000 to stay in their homes, or more if they participate - where all crime will be legal for twelve hours.

Activist Nya (Lex Scott Davis) is against this Purge because it's basically a legal way to murder the under-privileged, and her former boyfriend and drug kingpin Dmitri (Y'lan Noel) feels it's bad for his business, but Nya's brother Isaiah (Jovian Wade) chooses to participate for the money and get revenge on a drug user who almost killed him.

As the Purge begins, the Architect of the program (Marissa Tomei) finds that not a lot of people are participating, to the dismay of NFFA Chief of Staff Aldo Sabian (Patch Darragh), so he decides to send in mercenaries to the island disguised as gang members to elevate the death count.  Nya and Dmitri must not only survive the night, but protect those they love from a government who doesn't care about them.

The Synopsis:
The first "Purge" movie came out in 2013, and it was a rousing success.  The concept was an interesting one - what if all crime (including murder) was legal for twelve hours?  This led to countless debates and conversations about what we would do if that would ever be a thing, but no one even dreamt it was a possibility.  Flash forward to 2018, and with the recent dicey political climate, it seems that this concept could somehow become a possibility in the eyes of some Americans.  Director Gerard McMurray doesn't shy away from this fear, but instead uses it to fuel the underlying basis for the movie as a whole, resulting in a wannabe escapist film that, for some, feels all too real.

What the "Purge" series used to do was create a world of fantasy, where you sit and watch a film about people murdering one another without much pretense or underlying probabilities.  With "The First Purge," McMurray throws all that out the window and makes the film truly unsettling, and not in a good horror movie way.  It's unsettling because it feels like we're watching a documentary on something that could easily happen.  The government - now led by a gun-loving, overweight white man - basically wants to eliminate minorities and the poor by making murder legal on Staten Island, one of the poorest communities in America.  To incentivize the citizens from being smart and just leaving the island, they offer the impoverished citizens $5,000 to stay in their homes during the Purge, and more money if they go out and actively participate.  It's a film that is uneasy at its center, and leaves you with a continual sense of dread throughout - you never know where the next threat will come from, or who you can trust.

The film focuses on a small group of citizens on the island who span way differing views.  Nya is an activist who is vehemently against the Purge, and wants the community to band together and love one another.  Dmitri is the local drug kingpin (who's also Nya's ex) who emerges as the unlikely hero, as he's a kingpin with morals - he doesn't want to Purge either (basically because he could loose men, which equals loss of income), and orders his men to protect those close to them.  Nya's brother Isaiah just started working for Dmitri (unbeknownst to Nya), and was attacked by a crazed drug user named Skeletor (played by Rotimi Paul, who is truly terrifying).  He uses the Purge as a chance to get his revenge, but finds himself in way over his head.

Then there's the supplemental characters who have just enough screen time to be relevant.  "Orange is the New Black" star Mugga plays Dolores, Nya's next-door-neighbor who's the comedic relief of the film, Lauren Velez and Kristen Solis play Luisa and Selena, a Latina mother and daughter who try to stay alive.  Then there's three men who oppose Dmitri's reign of terror on the town, but have a friendship with him as well, and two insanely crazy homeless women who are humorous in a dark way with how they enact their own Purge (involving a lot of creepy dolls and not-so-well placed explosives).  The fact that all the heroes we see here are minorities isn't accidental, but another way to express the growing divide between the races in America.

The white people in the film are the enemy, and it's obviously blatant.  The whole experiment was concocted by Dr. May Updale, who feels that this concept could release the anger felt in Americans in a legal way.  Even though she soon realizes the extent of what she's done, it's too late to change it.  Then there's the NFFA, which is all privileged white people who basically want to commit genocide against minorities and have a dirty, gleeful time doing it.  Again, it's unnerving to watch, and not in a safe way.

There's multiple instances in the film that point to the all-too-real political climate we face today.  Some of the mercenaries are from Russia.  One Purger tries to grab Nya by a particular body part that a certain man in authority today says he did before.

What the film does right is create an overwhelming sense of dread.  I sat on the edge of my seat through most of the film, eagerly waiting for the next big bad to emerge suddenly, and there's plenty of moments of that.  The main characters are also developed enough that I cared about their well-being, and the violence and gore are amped up to the highest degree.  For fans of the "Purge" series, it holds true to the concept well.  Bodies litter the ground, gunshots ring out, flamethrowers are used, and Skeletor wields a Freddy Kruger-like glove of needles that is just plain creepy.  The atmosphere is horrific, hope is all but extinct, and you wonder how these people will make it out alive - especially knowing this is a prequel, so you know the bad guys eventually win.

The Summary:
While exploiting the current political climate, "The First Purge" does succeed in delivering loads of gore and violence, even though it blatantly feeds on the fears of several Americans today, leading to the real question - could the Purge actually become a reality?

The Score: B