The Purge movies take a different approach when representing themselves as a horror movie, filling the films in the franchise with plenty of jump scares and bloody moments, but also a nightmare political agenda. The basis of the movies rely on The Purge; twelve hours of lawless rule, where any and all crime is legal and there are zero consequences in return, even when it comes to murder. It started in 2013, when the first Purge movie was released in theaters, and starred Ethan Hawke, who just recently starred in The Black Phone. The second was The Purge: Anarchy, followed by The Purge: Election Year, then The First Purge, and finally The Forever Purge. The Purge had such a successful run with audiences, the franchise has in total five movies, and a show on the SYFY network that aired two seasons with the same basis as the movies.
Something to be noted with The Purge, and something that can't be ignored, is the political commentary that makes up the films. The movies run on this idea of a third party government, New Founding Fathers of America, who got voted into power of the government and how their system of The Purge is something that "helps" America. Throughout the movies, viewers come to understand that The Purge is a way to keep the population down, so essentially, unemployment isn't a thing that exists in this version of America; however, it's much more twisted than what it seems. In the second film in the franchise, The Purge: Anarchy, one news anchor comments that if citizens aren't partaking in the commencement, they should get off the streets immediately before the war begins. While the Purge movies are gruesome and a bloodbath, they take a great stance on political commentary.
The Wealthy Vs Lower Class
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CinemaBlend states that The Purge was created to lower the population in lower-class neighborhoods, specifically areas filled with POC. While people in these areas hide and fight for their lives over the twelve-hour period, people who have a substantial amount of money and are on the wealthy side of the world don't have to worry about the horrors going on outside their home. In The Purge, Ethan Hawke's character is well-versed in preparing for a night of potential torture, locking down his mansion with steel reinforcements and security cameras located on every inch of the exterior of the house. Meanwhile, people in lower-class cities and neighborhoods are targeted and hunted down like prey, individuals who take part in The Purge, ticking them off their roster one by one.
This is an interesting take when one compares it to the social stigmatization between the wealthy and lower class citizens in the real world. Homeless individuals in America aren't helped as nearly as they should be, and urban areas are given less resources in order to strive like suburban neighborhoods surrounding them. That being said, it isn't too farfetched to imagine what takes place between the wealthy/everyone else, if The Purge was to ever take place.
The Purge: Election Year
In 2016, Blumhouse Productions released the third installment of The Purge franchise, gaining attention from the flashy name given the year, and with the tagline "Keep America Great". In this film, Senator Charlene Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell) is running for president, hopeful that if she wins, she'll be able to put an end to The Purge once and for all. It's mentioned in this film that individuals involved with the government are protected when it comes to The Purge, but once the New Founding Fathers of America and their candidate, who is also running for president, learn of what Roan wants to accomplish, they lift the protection and send the hunt after her. When it comes to America and getting people used to a certain thing, chances are, after years of repetition and being comfortable with where they are at, certain people wouldn't change their minds about something this grandiose, like the film states.
This is a great example of how these movies correlate with real life, the government turning on their own protected person and wanting to kill them because they threaten to take something away. Something that is destroying what their America once was, instead turning it into a bloodbath and killing people in the name of a pressure-releasing ceremony. Looper states that this movie toed the line between fantasy but also real life issues that could possibly take place, leaving audiences that much more on the edge of their seats as they waited to see who survived the night as well as who won the election in the end. The ending of the third film is something that should be mentioned as well as important for viewers to notice, once Roan is announced as the newest president, the shot cuts to a different news station reporting that mass outbreaks of gun violence have been taking over cities as a response to the news.
The Discussion of Race
It's no secret that race has a big part in The Purge, since it was created to decrease the population of minorities and low-class neighborhoods. In the Forever Purge, the movie takes a different spin on the story when a group of outcasts, wild cowboys who are mostly Caucasian, decide that the Purge wasn't going to just be for twelve hours, but instead-be forever. All laws and crime would be completely free for all 365 days of the year, and to prove how serious they are about this, they go and terrorize a group of Hispanic individuals. When main character Adela (Ana de la Reguera) gets captured with a rope around her neck, and she starts to speak Spanish in search for help, her captor demands she speak English, so he can understand what she was saying.
The Purge franchise isn't subtle when pinpointing real life issues that could most definitely happen if something like the 12-hour free-for-all took place, and with The Forever Purge they nailed it right on the head. It's easy to picture a group of people who wish not to abide by the laws of the government, and make their own rules instead, so they can continue to kill and hunt down minorities, fueling their quota and racist mindset. In The Forever Purge, some Americans wish to flee to Mexico for safety but realize how hard it is when they come across the border, leading them to be trapped inside their own country.