The First Purge

The crime rate in the US is too high, everyone agrees on that. However, how to deal with it, and how to prevent this development, is highly controversial. An idea: What would happen if all crimes were legal for one night? Would society be more peaceful then? The psychologist Dr. It was Updale ( Marisa Tomei ) whose theories are based on a test run. In the Staten Island district of New York, all laws are suspended for twelve hours, from simple theft to murder, everything is allowed. Each resident receives $5,000 so that they can actively participate in this experiment. In fact, there are enough volunteers, including drug lord Dmitri ( Y’lan Noel ), his ex-girlfriend Nya (Lex Scott Davis ), and her brother ( Joivan Wade ). And it won’t be long before the situation escalates and the first deaths are reported.

What does a shrewd producer do when a new film in a series is needed, but the idea for a sequel is missing? You still turn one. Or change the scenario a little bit. See The Purge. After three regular parts have been released and we are still waiting for the TV series announced over a year ago, there is already a prequel to fill the gaps. It is told here how the groundbreaking institution came about that allows any crime one night a year: murder, robbery, rape. Everything is allowed.

Longed-for fresh wind for a slowly stagnating story or just a lukewarm tea to wring a few more dollars from the hit series? Either way, The First Purge promised to be bloody. Because if the series has shown one thing, then it is a penchant for downright satirical social brutality. After all, The Purge started in 2013 with a bunch of bored wealthy – knowing, of course – murdering, torturing, and having a lot of fun with vulnerable homeless people.

Such a scenario still has a lot of potentials, especially for a film set in the USA: a country where people get shot if they don’t suit you. A country whose president is at best not interested in violence against minorities, and at worst even propagates it. In The First Purge, however, that potential is terrifyingly ignored. Sure, other parts gave up the attacks on inhuman elites in favor of everyday genre life, buried the shockingly caustic portrait of society under the usual thriller rubble. Normally it wasn’t as extreme as here. That so much time is wasted on trivial gang wars is very annoying.

• The First Purge