2013’s THE PURGE
Where viewed: DVD, laptop, bed.
Experience with movie: None, and I typically don’t seek out these recent-vintage low budget, high concept horror flicks.
Writer: James DeMonaco
Director: James DeMonaco
Principal Actors: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder
The setup: for 12 hours every year, all crime is legal in America. An upper class white family tries to stay safe in their locked-down McMansion, but stupidly gets entangled in this annual bloodletting. The concept of the film has the potential for commentary on class division, crime and morality, and American consumerism. One of the great things about genre films is their ability to carry a social message without embarrassing CRASH-like on-the-nosed-ness. Well. Outside of a few superficial shrugs in their direction, THE PURGE pretty much lets these opportunities slip away. And that’s fine. Social commentary isn’t a requirement for an enjoyable horror flick. Skipping over the shockless and surpriseless plot, the horrendous camerawork is the most stink-worthy part of the movie. The overabundance of headache-inducing closeups and odd framing choices (like obscuring 3/4 of the shot with the back of someone’s out-of-focus head during conversation scenes) makes the act of watching THE PURGE awkward and uncomfortable. Not in an artistically pleasing way, like how sitting through the super long takes of a mid-century Japanese movie initially irritates our hyperactive 21st century brains before letting the beauty of slow-paced long shots seep in. But in a there’s-an-eyelash-caught-under-my-contact-lens-oh-god-get-it-out kind of way. Perhaps the director and/or the rookie cinematographer Jacques Jouffret were trying to suggest claustrophobia or the isolation of our foolish protagonist family. Perhaps they were trying to as much brand name actor face onscreen in their low budget flick. But these shot selections disrupt the visual rhythm of scenes in a hugely clumsy way and, perhaps more importantly, they rob the viewer of spatial context and awareness of the setting. Since the movie descends into a “protect the fort” story in the grand tradition of HOME ALONE and STRAW DOGS, we need to have at least a passable understanding of the McMansion’s geography. We don’t. And once the masked bad dudes inexplicably cut off the McMansion’s power, all the characters may as well have been swinging their axes and bad dialogue while floating in a black void. Which is where I’ll be sending this DVD.
FADE OUT 