The Purge franchise has been increasingly popular since its first film, simply titled The Purge, released in 2013. Since then, four more films have been added to the series, including the most recent addition, The Forever Purge.
The Synopsis
Following the events of The Purge: Election Year (2016), The Forever Purge showed that the end of Senator Charlie Roan’s (Elizabeth Mitchell) four-year presidency, which saw the cancellation of the annual Purge, was what American had been waiting for.
As soon as Roan was voted out of office, the Purge was reinstated so US citizens could Purge and cleanse themselves of all their hatred and anger once again.
This movie focused on two families; on one hand we see Juan (Tenoch Huerta) and his wife Adela (Ana de la Reguera), who have travelled to America from Mexico, in search of the American Dream.
The couple arrive in America shortly before the first Purge in four years is set to begin. Adela and her husband find refuge with others like themselves to hide out with during the Purge, but not everything is as it seems.
We also follow a wealthy white family who own a ranch; the Tuckers seem like a decent family who are kind to Juan, who works with the horses. While the Tucker family make it through the night, it’s not over yet.
The Forever Purge follows these two families as they work together to make it through the days following the Purge, as some living in the US wish for the barbaric event to continue indefinitely.
So, what did I think?
I was extremely excited to see The Forever Purge in cinemas, and after re-watching the other films in the franchise, I would definitely say that this is the best one of them all.
The other movies in the franchise all had a similar focus; class and religion seemed to be the main areas in the spotlight. Many people within these films believed that God wished for the Purge, and killing the poor would lead to a better America.
Class was also a massive motivator included in every single film; while the 2013 pitted rich against rich, the following two films (The Purge: Anarchy and The Purge: Election Year) really zoned in on the idea that the well-off would use the poor to Purge on, and rid the world of the ‘scum’ that is the less fortunate.
While this movie did follow this pattern of class, we saw themes never really explored within the franchise before, making it a standout from the rest.
The Forever Purge saw race become a large point of focus, and we, for the first time, saw the aftermath of a Purge event. Both these factors alone made this film different from its predecessors in the best ways.
The feature really showed how racism in America can be (not everyone thinks the way the Purgers do, though), as Adela sees large trucks holding many people who are not white; the truck’s driver states that they are cleansing America from non-American blood, so the country can return to a state of purity.
This was hard to watch in the best of ways; Juan and Adela seem constantly nervous to be in the US, but Adela seems to be leaning into it more and is always practicing her English and being kind to whoever she meets. Juan is more reserved, and seems to think less of himself.
This makes it distressing in a way, that despite their hard-working attitudes, they are still considered to be non-American and do not deserve to live in the country.
While the two families travelled through Texas together to try and make it to Mexico, who has opened its boarders to give people refuge from the now illegal killings, Juan and the others are circled by a man who orders the white members to shoot the “brownies”, a very powerful scene as no one wished to harm someone they called a friend.
The movie was, to concentrate on other areas, an action-packed, tense and thrilling couple of hours; seeing the Purge is traumatic enough, but to witness a continuation of the event showed sadism on another level, as many people were shooting, killing and trapping others in order to ‘clean’ America.
It was interesting to see a Purge film without seeing anything from the night of the event itself, except one or two news channels discussing the first Purge in four years. This, again, was what made this film stand a bit taller than the rest; everyone feels like they have survived, without knowing of the horrors to come like the audience did.
We saw people from different backgrounds fight together, and while we saw that in the 2016 movie, this combination of people seemed to have more heart and meaning, as their backgrounds don’t usually mix in times of crisis: they are usually on different sides.
This instalment into the franchise really showed a different side to these films, as we saw Purge events taking place illegally rather than in the designated 12 hours, making it s scarier situation, we saw a pregnant women run through bullets to save her unborn baby, and we saw sacrifice and willpower like never before.
The Forever Purge is definitely the best of its kind. We witnessed new and unique angles to the series; we saw love and perseverance like never before; the cinematography, dialogue and casting was perfect, and the story was chaotic and exciting: not a film you want to miss.
Check out the trailer for The Forever Purge below!
Written by Melissa, who you can follow on Twitter @melissajournal
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