The Forever Purge

6.3/10

The Forever Purge felt more like an action movie than the horror movie that we’ve been accustomed to in previous films. There was just enough dudes in spooky masks that justifies it being classified as a horror film. However, even the action pales in comparison to its socio-politicism. Almost exactly six months after the insurrection on January 6th, this film gives a maybe not too exaggerated glimpse at what could transpire if angry ass white dudes got their way. The film serves as a two-hour example of far-right rhetoric coming to fruition on screen.

The Purge Purification Force (PPF) are a fictionalized depiction of the real-life Proud Boys. On the night of the purge, instead of stopping after the legally allotted 12 hours, the PPF keeps the party going and tasks themselves with the eradication of Mexican illegal immigrants who they believe are bastardizing America. The movie says Make American Great Again without saying Make America Great Again.

The film takes place in Texas, and it shows the PPF taking up arms and inciting a carefully orchestrated civil war on Mexicans throughout the county. This film likely doesn’t exist without a Donald Trump presidency, and it depicts the deadly potential of the extreme right.

Some may see this film as propaganda, but I think a more accurate view of it is that it’s a cautionary tale of the importance of being exceedingly vigilant of hate groups. Hate groups start small and sprout into something larger and more powerful and insidious when their views are dismissed as “just words that aren’t hurting anyone”. Pontifications on freedom of speech usually follow these points. Hate speech precedes violence with these groups and this film exists to show the deadly consequences of not being vigilant of this. Words have power, and as seen on January 6th, they can and will incite violence.

The Forever Purge is a solid but far from great film. Its purpose extends beyond being an entertaining horror-action movie. The film is a no pun intended - call-to-arms against hate groups and violent rhetoric. The film itself could have done a better job in developing its characters. The beautiful Ana de la Reguera stars as Adela and its mentioned that she and her husband, Juan, played by Tenoch Huerta, formerly had military training to fight the Cartel in Mexico. This explains why they’re so good at playing real life Call of Duty, but that revelation only occurred so them being so good with weaponry doesn’t go unexplained.

Josh Lucas plays Dylan Tucker who initially appears to be one of the antagonists in the film. He displays ire towards Juan and his animosity is ostensibly stemming from racist beliefs, however this is shown not to be the case. He does believe that whites and Mexicans shouldn’t intermingle, but he states that it’s not because he believes that whites are inherently better than other races, but because he believes in true separation and equality of the races. In real life this could debatably still be considered racist coming from a white man, but the film establishes him as non-racist to allow him to be one of the good guys, so for the sake of the film and the article I’ll roll with it.

The fifth Purge film gives a needed change of pace for the franchise. Instead of having a film where a group of people protect themselves in their city, the Forever Purge depicts a video-game like journey. The forever purge gets so out of control that Mexico and Canada open their respective borders to non-forever purging Americans. This is a very unsubtle pro Mexican to US immigration take. The point being raised is that borders should be open to those in need, which many of the Mexicans fleeing to the US are. The irony is too obvious to be profound, but it does raise a relevant question on how Mexico would (should?) react to Americans in peril seeking asylum.

The film itself moves away from traditional horror and becomes more of an action film. There’s as much gunfire as I’ve seen in any entry from the horror genre. There are still jump scenes and dark shots that allow it to still be classified as a horror film, but the Forever Purge is a departure from the other four in that it focuses on action, gunfire, and reconnaissance over spooks, creeps, scares and chills. It will be interesting to see how this dictates the future sixth film.

The film is solid, but not great. It actually may be better received by my action-film buffs. There are way more guns than spooky moments, so those not high on the first four might find the Forever Purge more up their alley. The film is entertaining because I love watching cat-and-mouse games in my horror films. I also enjoy seeing my characters make treks throughout the film and the Forever Purge has both. The biggest criticism is the thinly developed characters. The main cast is given just enough development so that we know who they are but not much more beyond that. It’s a bummer because you’re obviously rooting for them but it’s hard to get as invested into their survival because you don’t know much about them. Even, Adela, the lead, is sparsely characterized. Despite that, the film is cool and about on par with Election Year and above the very first Purge but paling in comparison to the First Purge and Anarchy. The Forever Purge is an entertaining summer film to hit the theatre for post-quarantine. Most importantly it justifies the continuation of the franchise.