Another week, another sequel. This horror follow-up to the surprise 2013 hit continues to depict a night filled with screams, blood, lawlessness and reckless abandon. Nope, it isn’t about St. Patrick’s Day… instead, it’s a holiday known as “The Purge”, where all crime becomes legal for a period of 12 hours. While the very flawed but intriguing original kept events to a claustrophobic single locale, The Purge: Anarchy operates on a larger and grander scale. However, the consequence is an unfocused and choppy story. Frankly, if movies could be diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), this would be a prime case study.
The plot follows a group of Los Angeles based strangers who end up in each other’s company as the event begins. Introductions include a poor family (Carmen Ejogo, and Zoë Soul) on the run after their apartment is invaded, as well as a young couple (Kiele Sanchez and Zach Gilford) experiencing car trouble. Bizarrely, the stranded pair appear more preoccupied with whether or not they should tell a relative that they’re separating than with the ensuing chaos. Finally, there’s a vigilante (Frank Grillo) determined to take revenge for the death of his son. That is, if he ever gets there – this is a tough guy, but he sure seems to be taking a roundabout route into the suburbs.
And as if this wasn’t enough, in addition to the typical group of masked killers and general crazy persons, there are trucks containing a large, machine-gun toting killer and a group of paratroopers that may be part of a government conspiracy. Furthermore, there is a faction of wealthy socialites partaking in ritualized murder and a revolutionary force out to stop the powers that be – at least, when they aren’t busy uploading online videos to further their cause.
The general concept behind this series has potential. It earns some points for its critique of the upper class, but the allegory on the abuse of the have-nots by the wealthy gets muddled. It doesn’t help that the plot can’t seem to focus on one or two threads. Instead, it jarringly switches gears every 25 minutes or so. At first, it’s a survivalist horror flick, then shifts to action tropes in the vein of Escape from New York, before paying homage to The Most Dangerous Game. Viewers might be better entertained by picking out the numerous movies being liberally borrowed from. By jumping around so frequently, there is no detail given to the multiple factions skulking in the night and little character development.
It’s an unfortunate situation for the cast as well, who are forced to deliver some preposterous dialogue. A series of brutal events are followed by the survivors taking refuge and inappropriately joking among themselves. A character verbally takes a stand against murder, but allows others to kill on her behalf to stay alive (it doesn’t help that for all the criticism of violence, the filmmakers lovingly showcase the brutal deaths in slow-motion). Another lead seemingly completes their character arc at a certain point in the film, only to do an about-face for a couple of scenes, before once again reverting to their original realization.
The action sequences themselves are well handled and Grillo makes an entertaining B-movie hero. Regardless, the story jumps around and the characters behave irrationally, while the script fails to properly develop any of its themes. It results in an unbelievable pastiche. Perhaps the intention was to develop the many factions in future films, but as it stands The Purge: Anarchy is a jumble of interesting ideas with no cohesion. Horror aficionados might be best to flush out any desire to see this sequel.