RUN ALL NIGHT
Twisted experiment eliminates poor, minorities in ‘First Purge’
The First Purge” is as subtle — and as effective — as a blowtorch. This is actually the fourth in this series and stands as an obviously ironic choice for a Fourth of July release, when American independence is celebrated.
In “The First Purge,” American values are besieged.
Staten Island, N.y., has been chosen for what the hypocritical, evil new president hails as a social experiment. It allows volunteers a 12-hour window to basically break the law, give in to their most violent impulses and not be charged for their crimes.
Those who decline to evacuate the island for the night face the possibility of being killed.
Why would anyone stay? Money! The poor living here can't resist the $5,000 offer. Plus there's a bonus for “extras” — like murdering someone.
It's the pet theory of social scientist Dr. updale (Marisa Tomei), who is to oversee how her theory works in a real world scenario.
It may be patently demented but the reality is far more insidious.
The government has hired mercenaries dressed as Ku Klux Klansmen and Nazi stormtroopers to eliminate — as in mass execution — the poor minorities so they won't be a burden on the state in terms of social services costs. These soldiers-for-hire find their prey via tracking devices inserted under the skin of the “experiment” volunteers.
Poor updale. She has no idea what she's really dealing with here when she protests and threatens to expose the contemptible vigilante “justice.”
Slightly futuristic, “The First Purge” illustrates contemporary fears with this paranoid conspiracy by a racist ruler against minorities. Director Gerard McMurray offers basically a nightmare of a fun house where at every corner, there's something, someone to make you jump.
The unlikely hero is Staten Island's biggest drug dealer, Dmitri (muscular martial artist y'lan Noel), who makes a charismatic leader of the people as he single-handedly takes on the paramilitary scum.
The ensemble is vividly presented, with optimistic characters of faith who are no match for the evil they face. A church becomes a cemetery, a naive teenager must go face to face with a psychopath who believes he's Satan.
Loud, violent and relentless, “The First Purge” signals how this franchise began. Will it ever end?