The First Purge (2018)

The New Founding Fathers have been approved to attempt an experiment on Staten Island. They, and the architect of the plan Dr. Updale, hypothesize that giving people 12 hours of consequence free crime will alleviate crime during the rest of the year. The residents of the island are questioned and paid for either staying for or participating in the experiment. Nya organizes a protest against the Purge and plans to stay in a church to help her community stay safe. Dmitri plans to do the same except with his own gang to protect their drug cache. Nya's little brother was attacked by a deranged drug addict known as Skeletor and plans to use the Purge to get revenge. Who will survive this experiment and how will others use their Purge Night?

The First Purge takes a different tactic than the others in the franchise. It takes more time with the setup and doesn't have the same sinister characters in the background. The first scene of the film has New Founding Fathers employees asking Skeletor questions about his rage, his need for violence, and his plans for the Purge. They interviewed many people and offer payment for their presence and participation. Many of the poor and disadvantaged people choose to at least stay for the money because they are desperate. Others want to kill, create mayhem, or just party. When the Purge starts, the NFFA is disappointed that most just want to party or steal. Their true aim is to have people killing each other and effectively getting rid of the people of color, the poor, and who they consider drains on society.

The two main characters are Nya and Dmitri who have chosen different paths in life. Nya is an outspoken activist and believes she can change things by this route. Dmitri is an extremely wealthy drug lord. They also used to date. Dmitri is eventually painted as the savior and hero of this film while Nya fails pretty much all across the board. I don't like this because he is shown to have no qualms over murder, recruits local teens as small time drug dealers, and sells drugs all over the island. He's hurting his own community and then turns around to save it when outsiders come in to kill (and prove the NFFA right). I guess the message is that he's better than the NFFA, an organization uncomfortably close to Trump and his current regime, but that doesn't mean he's good. The ending of the film turns into an action film where Dmitri, stripped of his crew in a horribly plotted way, goes floor by floor through the building where Nya lives, killing intruders.

The First Purge doesn't feel much like a horror film to me. It's more of a dark action movie with heavy political messages. The NFFA and their tactics are pretty accurate to what's happening today and it has put off a lot of people because it feels too real. I enjoyed the film, but, like all the Purge films, there are a lot of things were introduced and didn't really pay off (like the glowing contact lenses and the 3 Kings) and many performances were subpar. I found this to be the weakest of the Purge films except for the very first.

My rating: 2.5/5 fishmuffins