Review: THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR Might be the Most Important Horror Movie of 2016

Right now, the United States is at a major crossroads, and as a citizen, I don’t think I’ve ever been more worried about what the future holds for us than I have been over the last nine months. Regardless of whatever your political or social beliefs are, there’s no denying that collectively our nation is on the crux of something huge, which is why The Purge: Election Year might truly be the most important horror movie to be released this year.

While its message can be clunky at times, The Purge: Election Year is still purposeful in its storytelling, and considering everything that is happening around us—from the presidential campaign to gun debates to race relations to police violence to terrorism—I can’t help but feel we need a movie like this now more than ever. As someone who grew up watching films like Dawn of the Dead, Alien, They Live, Videodrome, or even Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I’m a huge fan of any genre movie that incorporates social commentary into its themes, and The Purge: Election Year does it quite successfully (albeit, not nearly as subtly as the films listed above).

The Purge: Election Year takes place two years after we last saw Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo), who is now spearheading the security detail for Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), a revolutionary politician who wants to eliminate the annual Purge night if she’s elected as president. We learn at the start of the movie that Charlie was once subjected to a hellacious night some 18 years prior when she watched her family brutally murdered as part of someone’s Purge celebration, so she’s determined to put an end to the senseless night at any cost.

Of course, that doesn’t sit well with the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA), and for this year’s night of celebratory murder, they’ve declared that anyone can be killed, meaning no government officials are safe. This puts a huge target on Charlie’s back, and it’s up to Leo to make sure she lives through the night so that she can go on to win her campaign for the presidency and hopefully change her country for the better by ending the Purge once and for all.

If you told me after The Purge premiered back in 2013 that this franchise would end up being one of the more relevant series in modern horror, I honestly would not have believed it. What began as a modest home invasion story has evolved into something so much bigger than itself, something that we really need right now because in this day and age, entertainment is the only way to reach a lot of people, and not much else seems to be working (as I’m writing this review, I’m catching up on the horrific attack at an airport in Istanbul, so yes, we as a society are collectively in upheaval). We live in a day and age where violence is sadly becoming the norm (just look at the shootings in Chicago over the last year—appalling), so it would seem like the last thing we could ever possibly need is an ultra-violent action horror movie, right? Wrong.

Writer/director James DeMonaco (who has been with The Purge since the very beginning, and has made huge strides as a visual storyteller in just three short years) jumps right into the proverbial deep end with Election Year, tackling social programs for lower-income families, insurance companies that often take advantage of the less fortunate, gun control, millennial behaviors, race relations—you name it. Sometimes his script handles its message with the subtlety of a bull in a china shop, but when The Purge: Election Year finds its voice and sticks to its message, it’s really great. There’s nothing here that comes across as overly preachy, either, and that can always be a tough line to walk for any filmmaker.

For example, DeMonaco doesn’t say anything specifically in the script that addresses the idea of gun control head-on, but just watch how Leo deals with characters on Purge night versus how others do it. While we see most people armed with semi-automatic weaponry, Leo often utilizes either a handgun or a knife—nothing ever beyond that. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not, but there’s an interesting subtext going on in any case, with DeMonaco proving there are reasonable alternatives to defending yourself beyond the need to be armed to the teeth with excessive guns and ammo. Whether it was coincidence or ingenuity, it was those touches to the story and characters in Election Year that I really dug and appreciated.

The Purge: Election Year, while certainly a very serious action-oriented horror movie, also veers into the realm of self-parody to varying degrees of success, but I enjoyed that at least DeMonaco decided to try something new for this third installment. Considering what we’re facing as a nation in our actual election this November, there are definitely some parallels to be made in Election Year, and DeMonaco often goes full tilt with his approach, especially when it comes to the NFFA or the idea of “murder tourists.”

Grillo once again proves he’s a natural badass in The Purge: Election Year and I’ve enjoyed seeing his character evolve over these two films. Mitchell, who was great on Lost, delivers some solid work here, too, giving Grillo a run for his money in the “hard-nosed, always takes charge” department, with the two sharing some great chemistry throughout Election Year.

Mykelti Williamson (of Forrest Gump, Con-Air, and The Final Destination fame) is another bright spot in the cast for the latest Purge, playing a down-on-his-luck deli owner who must help Leo protect Senator Roan from her would-be assassins. Williamson is given a lot of fun and lighthearted (well, as lighthearted as you can get for a movie in which killing is a national holiday) material in the film and he makes for a nice counterbalance to the grizzled Leo, who takes his job very, very, very seriously.

Also, a supporting character by the name of Harmon James (played by Christopher James Baker) is so aberrantly weird, that I wish we knew more about him because he certainly commands our attention (especially in Election Year’s third act), and I just found him so oddly fascinating. Prequel, maybe?

Visually, there’s a lot for fans of The Purge series to really dig into here, as DeMonaco once again delivers a handful of memorable villains that are beyond cool. There are the mirror-globe-masked assailants (who have a group of victims tied to the hood of their car—utterly terrifying), the Uncle Sam and Statue of Liberty masked murderers that have been all over the film’s marketing (for good reason, of course), and teenaged assailants in vehicles decked out with white Christmas lights are another awesome sight to behold (admittedly, the lead villain in the clique was by far the worst thing about Election Year, so you win some, you lose some).

If you consider yourself a fan of The Purge series, especially Anarchy, by and large you should be happy with what DeMonaco and his cast and crew have created in Election Year, a well-paced horror movie that’s also a thrilling actioner just the same. There have been a lot of amazing genre films to get released so far in 2016 (and a ton to look forward to in the coming months), but to me, The Purge: Election Year is easily one of the most important ones we’re going to see over these 12 months. It delivers the violence and mayhem you’d expect from a Purge movie, but it also doesn’t shy away from exploring a lot of the important issues currently plaguing our nation and even our society as a whole. I’ve enjoyed seeing how The Purge films have evolved over the last several years (especially since I didn’t love the original when it was released), and Election Year is another great installment that I found thoroughly entertaining.

Movie Score: 4/5