The First Purge

Dir Gerard McMurray, US 2018 On UK release from 4 July

Since the 1980s, several horror franchises have come and gone, churning out increasingly disposable sequels on their path towards obscurity, and James DeMonaco’s The Purge franchise fits this bill nicely. Being both poorly directed and poorly written, the film hamfistedly bombards the viewer with social commentary as the violence escalates. While this has always been the formula for this franchise, the current political climate means there’s enough realworld horror unfolding to render the commentary offered by The

First Purge more sensationalist and insincere than usual.

Arguably, the effort to diversify the cast is one of the few good things about the film, but the setting in which these characters find themselves is more cynical than clever. While watching Klan members get their comeuppance at the hands of African-Americans is always immensely satisfying to watch, there are few other strong villains among the participants of this first ‘purge’ event, just as the evil masterminds on the government side are too onedimensional to be menacing. While The First Purge has a few redeemable moments, it’s exactly what you have come to expect from this sort of horror cinema, and one can only hope that this is another franchise that will soon be purged from the world of cinema.