The Purge is a dystopian, psychological horror film in which on this one day every year in America, there are no laws, allowing people to commit whatever crime they want. This is evidently displayed in the title sequence, where there is a number of examples of arson, killing, shooting etc. caught on a CCTV camera, hinting to the audience that this is what the film is about - divulging into your inner most needs.
The film starts off with a typical day; completely opposite to a horror film off a man driving home in a car with flowers, however the more into the scene it gets, the more the audience can piece together what he's talking about, and what the flowers are for. The calmness of him though, implies just how normal this is, and he's done this plenty of times, but it is clear to the audience that he'll be one of the main characters in the film. Similarly, through mise-en-scene, it shows the kind of character he is; his house shows his wealth, his attire connotes that he is a businessman, and the flowers suggest that he loves his wife.
As the film builds up, we learn that he is a father, and has just created a security system which he has 'tried out' and is confident that will keep him and his family safe until sunrise the next day. This is a major sign to the audience that it will obviously fail and bring harm to them. To the audience's as well as my surprise, his security system did in fact work, but the son's actions of turning it off to let a man running from killers in, sparked the whole story.
However, the film did seem quite inconspicuous as the only black character was the man who was let in, whereas the rest of the neighbours in the neighbour hood, as well as the people after him, were all of a white ethnicity. The man had killed during the year, and on the night of the Purge, was being chased to be killed. This personally irritated me, as I feel like to give a more representative ideology of what could potentially be America in 50 years, they should have included more ethnicities. Or perhaps, it was to highlight that the black minority are not the only ethnicity to be stereotyped as delinquent with criminal behaviour, and in fact others of a higher social class can too.
The film overall, is more gruesome as opposed to horror. The most symbolic object of the Purge is the mask, which I still remember vividly as it was one of the most creepiest masks I've seen in my life. The large smile gives off an evil impersonation of innocence despite being to conceal identities of those trying to kill the black man and the family. The most unusual objects (props) are used to kill in the film for example an axe that was used as a decoration. Who lives in an upper class house and has an axe? Yet, there are conventional forms of violence, like smashing him into glass.
The focus on the injuries and blood, it part of the reason as to why it is rated 15. Similarly, the informal language and profanity used is far too explicit for a 12A, therefore I would agree with the rating. There are some parts of the film, where I think the film should be an 18, due to the unhumane things that occur. However overall, I do think the film's storyline is interesting. There are some scenes in which I do find pretty disinteresting but the film does have a steady pace in which there is an equilibrium, a disequilibrium and then a new equilibrium. Overall, I thought the film was average, as there was much more that could've improved it.
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