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The Purge: The First Reviews Of New Chilling Horror Movie

By Lauren James in Movies / TV / Theatre on 07 June 2013

Ethan Hawke Lena Headey Max Burkholder James DeMonaco

New scary thriller, The Purge, has been released in cinemas. Here's the round-up of the first reviews.

If you haven't already been tantalised by the creepy trailer that has been circulating - no, this is not a new fad diet - The Purge is the name of newly released horrific thriller from Staten Island (2009) director James DeMonaco thriller, starring Ethan Hawke (Sinister, Gattaca) and Lena Headey (300, Game Of Thrones).

We're in 2022 USA and the not-so-far future is rather different from the one we currently inhabit: unemployment and crime rates have hit an impossible all-time low. Great news, right? Well think again. These rates are kept low by the yearly government-authorized 'Purge': 12 hours of criminal free-for-all where all crimes, including murder, are permitted and all emergency services are suspended. The plot centres on the affluent Sandin family who live in a charming suburban neighbourhood.

Just like they do every year, the family batten down the hatches on the eve of The Purge and wait out the night as slaughter and destruction rages through the nation. However, a bloodied man begging to be saved appears outside the house and is granted entry by sympathetic young son Charlie (Max Burkholder) despite the ruling of his parents. The man is pursued to the house by a pack of masked and murderous strangers who give the family an ultimatum: hand over their 'purge-target' or they'll break in and kill everyone.

Watch The Purge trailer:

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The Purge Review

By Rich Cline

Excellent

A home-invasion thriller with a twist, this fiercely clever film is both thought-provoking and terrifying, mixing a Twilight Zone sense of morality with skilfully developed menace and genuinely horrific violence. It also boasts a cast that is terrific at keeping us guessing, shading their characters in such a way that, even if we know who's supposed to be the good and bad guys, we keep wondering if we've got it right.

The story takes place in 2022 America, which has solved its economic woes with Purge Night, a free-for-all in which people have 12 hours to commit any crime, including murder, to cleanse the streets and vent their frustration. The goal is to eliminate poverty and unemployment by killing off all the homeless and jobless people. And it's worked a charm, especially for security system salesman James (Hawke), who locks down inside his palatial home with wife Mary (Headey), rebellious teen daughter Zoey (Adelaide Kane) and shy gadget-whiz son Charlie (Burkholder). But two interlopers get into the house: Zoey's shady older boyfriend Henry (Oller) and a terrified stranger (Hodge) running from an angry mob of tenacious masked anarchists.

As the night progresses, James and Mary's world is ripped apart piece by piece, descending into a state of primal protectiveness that's eerily believable. If it's either kill or be killed, what would you do? Hawke and Headey are terrific as parents pushed to the brink, and sometimes over it, while Kane and Burkholder find surprising moments of their own. And as the smiling gang leader, Wakefield is seriously unsettling. So even if some of the plot's twists and turns are a bit predictable, the actors and filmmaker DeMonaco do a great job at delving beneath the surface to keep us squirming in our seats at both the nasty possibilities and some rather awful grisliness.

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The Purge Trailer

During a time when the American Dream is available to everyone in a euphoric world where unemployment is at 1% and crime rates are the lowest they've ever been in the US, families everywhere are arming their homes to protect themselves against the impending mayhem. Why? Because the countdown has begun to the one night of the year when their peace ends, when every crime is legal from burglary to murder. It's called The Purge; an official 12-hour annual period that allows a release for the population and keeps people out of prison as all emergency services are suspended. When one family board up their home and pray that they will be safe once more, things take a nasty turn when the son opens the doors to a frightened stranger and invites him to take refuge. The house is soon approached by a group of weapon wielding killers who offer them a chance of safety if they give up the stranger to them. The family soon find themselves challenging their own moral code as their true selves are revealed during their night of terror.

Continue: The Purge Trailer