‘First Purge’ drives a political point home
Trump administration looms over prequel
The new horror movie “The First Purge” wore its biggest inspiration proudly on the film’s first poster, with the title emblazoned on a red “Make America Great Again”-style hat.
Between that and the campaignstyle teaser released right after the State of the Union address, director Gerard McMurray laughs when it’s suggested he dodged a tweetstorm from President Donald Trump (at least thus far): “I know – that’s something I do not want.”
The marketing for “The First Purge” (in theaters Wednesday) trolls Trump, and the story doesn’t shy away from how much the administration has shaped the prequel, in which the NRA-backed third party New Founding Fathers of America (aka the NFFA) rules the White House in a dystopian alternate reality.
The fourth film in the series goes back to the first Purge – the one night of the year when all crime (including murder) is legal for 12 hours – and explores how it started as a behavioral experiment to help bring the crime rate under 1 percent. The NFFA pays residents in a marginalized community on Staten Island to remain there for the first of what will become an annual night of terror, with more money coming to those who “participate” (aka, rage in brutal ways). But when the residents party rather than Purge and the government sends in its own violent goons, a group including activist Nya (Lex Scott Davis) and local crime lord Dmitri (Y’lan Noel) fight back.
McMurray wanted “The First Purge” to see the nihilistic concept of the franchise “through the lens” of people of color. “The genre of horror lets us wrestle with the evils of our real world,” he says. “People come in with all kinds of scams and ideas of what they want to do to your community or how they see your community. Our communities are being gentrified now and we’re seeing a lot of change, so that rang true for me.”
Created by “First Purge” writer/executive producer James DeMonaco, the “Purge” films have had a political bent since the 2013 original, which starred Ethan Hawke as the father of a family staving off masked psychos trying to get in their house on Purge night. That movie was a commentary on gun laws and culture, and other political subthemes followed, from treatment of the impoverished to predatory economics that feed the rich and take away from the poor. (DeMonaco also heads up “The Purge” TV series, which premieres Sept. 4 on USA.)
But with “The First Purge,” “I was delving into what kind of government would be in place that would do something so egregiously grotesque,” DeMonaco says. “It felt appropriate to mirror the fear tactics that I felt Trump used to get into office that the NFFA was using to create the Purge.”
When one character questions NFFA statistics about the crime rate, “we were all asking the same thing when Donald (Trump) was talking about crime and terrorism: Are these true stats or are you just fearmongering?” says DeMonaco, adding that the poster was “a nice goose on Donald.”
“The First Purge” also showcases scenes of heated protests and rancor that may as well be in the news cycle, though “the seeds of all the discontent” were there when DeMonaco wrote the script a year and a half ago. “Everything that’s happening now is even more sadly relevant with the immigration policy. It’s scary, man.”
While “The First Purge” offers a heinous depiction of government, it is hopeful when it comes to actual Americans. “It’s a film about resistance,” McMurray says. “Dmitri says, ‘We fight,’ and in this country, people have been fighting for freedom and justice and rights.”
People often ask Davis if she thinks the scarily realistic landscape of the “Purge” movies could actually happen, yet her answer remains the same: “Don’t seek it into existence,” she says. “It’s not real, and I just pray that we will never see that type of day.”