The Purge: Anarchy

Summary

In 2013, director and writer James DeMonaco’s The Purge grossed over $89 million dollars at the box office against a $3 million dollar budget. It was the sleeper hit of the year and helped Blumhouse continue its ascent as a production house. The stunning numbers at the box office insured that the film would receive a sequel. With a budget of $9 million dollars to play with, James DeMonaco moved away from the home invasion thriller confines of the first film and went out to the streets where the action really happens. If The Purge is reminiscent of The Strangers, The Purge: Anarchy is more reminiscent of the early Nineties thriller Judgment Night. With a bigger budget the film was able to seize on the ideas present in the background of the first film and explore them on a much larger canvas. Anarchy is more of an action film than its predecessor, and it also continues DeMonaco’s skewering of the class divisions of American society. Purge: Anarchy is a sequel that is largely successful in expanding the scope of the series while also pleasing fans of the first film.

The film takes place in Los Angeles in 2023 on the night of the seventh annual Purge. Waitress Eva Sanchez (Carmen Ejogo) gets off work and returns to her apartment in the projects. Her daughter Cali (Zoe Soul) is there along with Eva’s ailing father, Papa Rico (John Beasley.) Eva works hard to pay for her father’s medications, but it is a losing battle. On the television screen, a revolutionary leader (Michael K. Williams) on a pirated broadcast rails against the actions of the RRPA. Across town, young married couple Liz (Kiele Sanchez) and Shane (Zach Gilford) are torn on whether they should separate or stay together. As they are attempting to make their way home, they are startled by a stranger in a mask outside a convenience story. Liz and Shane begin their drive home when their car shuts down in the middle of the city. The masked stranger had punctured a line underneath their car. They are left in the city and without weapons. Across town, an unnamed man (Frank Grillo) gathers up numerous handguns and tactical weapons. His ex-wife arrives at his apartment and tells him not to do what he plans to do. He shrugs her off and tells her to stay safe with her new family. He heads out onto the street in his decked out black car. As the purge begins, Eva looks in her father’s room. He has snuck out the back and sold himself to be a “martyr” for a wealthy family for $100,000. They can afford to buy him and purge safely from their own homes. As Eva and Cali are dealing with this grief, an evil neighbor bursts into their apartment with plans to harm them. On the streets, Eva sees a truck pull up to her building with armored men that storm into the building. The neighbor is killed by the armored men with machine guns, and Eva and Cali are snatched up to be taken for the personal purge for “Big Daddy.” They are placed on their knees behind the truck where Big Daddy mans a huge mechanized mini gun. At that moment, the unnamed man pulls around the corner in his black car. He makes a decision to save the girls and he kills some armored men and wings Big Daddy. While out of his car, Liz and Shane run into his back seat. As they begin to pull away, Big Daddy shoots at his car. Blocks away, the car breaks down. In order to fulfill his plan for the evening he needs a car. Eva offers to find him a car if he will keep them protected.

The Purge: Anarchy ranks as my personal favorite film out of the five film series. Sequels are rarely more interesting or better than the first film in a series, but Purge: Anarchy takes the concept in an interesting direction that streamlines and abandons most of the horror elements of the first film to make an enjoyable urban warfare action-thriller. Where the first Purge film alluded to the madness that takes place on the annual purge night, Purge: Anarchy puts the audience directly into the action. The film takes place almost exclusively at night and cinematographer Jacques Joufrette has a lot more to work with visually than he did on the first film. Where the first film was claustrophobic, the second film is expansive. Digital cinematography in urban landscapes at nighttime has a gritty feeling that works to the advantage of the film. Writer and director James DeMonaco creates numerous interesting action set-pieces as the characters in the film try to survive the night. The writing of the film moves into more political territory than the prior film by showing that the wealthy have used the Purge as a way of eliminating impoverished citizens, and by showing how heavily the game is rigged in the favor of teh wealthy. The film also surround the ideology of the Purge with religious zealotry and patriotism in a more direct way than the prior film, which had shown glimpses of it in the final sequences of the first film. As the films become more radical, their message becomes more direct in a way that I found enjoyable. That seems to be a debatable aspect of the films, and if you look at the reviews for Election Year and The First Purge you will see tons of fans that jumped the ship from the films as they felt it carried too heavy of a “liberal” agenda. I enjoyed these elements as a sort of snapshot of what was happening in the news cycle at that time. Like the other Purge films, the writing is not without a few clunker lines, but Anarchy is pretty tight overall. Anarchy features from solid character backstories – especially Frank Grillo’s character which has one of the best backstories featured in the series.

While The Purge: Anarchy is primarily an action/thriller, the horror aspects of the film come from a capacity for violence from everyday people and from the abnormal people that have waited all year for a chance to wreak havoc. The ensuing violence in Anarchy doesn’t reach the more in-your-face heights of the next couple films, which lends Anarchy a more reserved tone than those pictures. The more reserved tone may actually create more suspense than the bizarre sights were meant to induce, but both approaches have their pluses and minuses. One of the reasons why I like Anarchy the best out of the series occurs towards the end of the film. There is a sequence that is reminiscent of the film The Running Man in which the characters face off against some opponents while wealthy spectators look on. I loved everything about that scene.

The acting in The Purge: Anarchy is performed by a capable cast. Frank Grillo is the obvious star of the picture and he is very fun to watch in the film. He is believable as a tough-as-nails loner who has a reason to want to participate in the Purge. Carmen Ejogo is good in the role of Eva, and she has a nice dynamic with Zoe Soul. Kiele Sanchez and Zach Gilford are believable enough. The film is full of small parts for good character actors with John Beasley, Michael K. Williams, Noel Guglielmi, and Jack Conley all participating. There is a notable cameo from LaKeith Stanfield that also stands out.

Overall – The Purge: Anarchy is a rare sequel that improves upon the original and moves the series in a different direction. This film set the template for the more action oriented sequels that followed and it ranks as my favorite in the series.

Video

The Purge: Anarchy arrives onto Blu-ray with a good looking looking 1080p presentation featuring a MPEG-4 AVC encode in 2.40:1 aspect ratio. Jacques Joufrette once again handled the cinematography with an Arri Alexa XT camera, but this time he had a lot more to point his camera at. This is a good expansive widescreen vision from director James DeMonaco and Joufrette, and the film looks pretty great. They get a lot of bang out of their buck visually, and the grittiness of the digital filming at night actually works in the favor of the film’s mood. I liked what I saw.

Audio

The Purge: Anarchy features a well made and at times forceful DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track. The surrounds are used effectively, frequently, and loudly at times. There is much more action this go-around than in the first film, and the track reflects that. The track is clear and dialogue is easy to discern.

 Supplements:

• “Behind the Anarchy” – this is a short (nine minute) piece on the making of the film.

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements- 1/5

Overall – 4.5/5

The Purge: Anarchy is an excellent sequel to the sleeper hit home invasion thriller The Purge. The film’s script by director James DeMonaco moves away from the claustrophobia of the first film and sets its eyes on what a Purge event would be like inside the city. The film moves into action-thriller territory and further away from the horror aspects of the first film. It is a well thought transition and set the stage for the three sequels that followed. Like all of the Purge films, some of the plot machinations must be taken with a grain of salt and some of the dialogue occasionally falls flat. Those are small caveats for how well fleshed out the sequel turned out to be. Frank Grillo is great in the lead role. For my money, this is the best film in the series. Fans of the film will enjoy the technical presentation on the Blu-ray, but they may be slightly disappointed by the lack of supplemental features.