THRILL OF THE KILL

MORALITY-TAUNTING FILM FRANCHISE THE PURGE IS COMING TO THE SMALL SCREEN. BRYAN CAIRNS LOCKS THE DOORS AS TV ASKS, “WHAT WOULD YOU DO?”

It’s all murder and mayhem in the Purge tV series. Based on the movie franchise of the same name, the show takes place on the cusp of Purge night. sanctioned by the Founding Fathers of america, this annual event allows citizens across the country to unleash their rage and hatred by committing any crime imaginable without fear of legal persecution for 12 hours. set to premiere in september, the 10-episode first season introduces a new crop of fresh faces and explores how they cope with the horrific circumstance they are thrust into… for better or for worse.

“the most basic notion was, ‘let’s come up with these characters and throw them into the world of The Purge and see how they react,’” showrunner thomas Kelly says. “and do it in a way that draws the audience in. I think we have a diverse number of characters, storylines and backgrounds. to make it more accessible to a general audience was one of our mandates.

“We want the Purge diehards to come in, enjoy it again and feel like we’re giving them something totally separate from the movies, but just as rewarding in terms of being fans of it,” Kelly continues. “and, we want to show that anyone can sit down and turn it on and get it. What we have in our favour is the clarity and brevity of the premise, which is what attracted me way before I got around to seeing the movies. It raises that eternal question, ‘What would you do?’”

CULT STATUS

When SFX visits the new Orleans set of The

Purge on a blistering thursday morning in June, an intense flashback sequence is underway. It features two of the key characters, siblings Penelope [Jessica Garza] and miguel [Gabriel Chavarria]. a heated argument between Penelope and her boyfriend quickly turns physical. that’s when miguel enters the picture and intervenes. the altercation ultimately divides brother and sister throughout the show. Penelope joins a suicide cult, where people “are going out to offer themselves up, so others can purge and get cleansed through their sacrifice.” miguel naturally seeks to save her.

“the pilot starts a couple of hours before the sirens [signal the Purge],” explains Kelly. “We end the hour shortly after the siren. We get to meet all our main characters as they’re going to where they need to be once the sirens start. as with most pilots, you have to lay a lot of track, get to know the characters a bit and set up the stories. We are about 75% through when the sirens go off. the only daylight is in the pilot. We do have flashbacks, where there are day exteriors, which open up the show.”

ON THE PULSE

the Purge movies have always tiptoed between fiction and social commentary. each of the four films seems to foreshadow the anarchistic political climate the united states keeps barrelling towards. Kelly says the tV series will continue to incorporate a fair amount of those observations.

“the idea of the accumulation of too much power and too few people, and whether that’s on the left or the right, is a theme throughout history,” says Kelly. “Whenever that happens, there is a reaction to it. so, there’s certainly some of that. there’s a few things we poke fun at. But, it’s more of a cautionary tale of, ‘If we don’t respect each other, if we allow ourselves to dehumanise the other, bad things usually happen, whether it’s one night a year or all the other nights.’”

sadistic masked fiends relish hunting and killing on this yearly occasion. One top-secret set, that prominently figures in episode four, promises plenty of that carnage. On The Purge it seems there’s no such thing as job security. In other words, all the series regulars are possibly, and quite literally, on the chopping block.

“the expectation is anything can happen at any minute, which is kind of awesome,” Kelly concludes. “We came up with a premise of, ‘You get what you deserve.’ We hope that there’s some sort of karmic reality that we create. What the characters do, or don’t do, will determine their fates in the show.”