The Forever Purge: Still wild in the streets, with accidental relevancy but minus the tension and dread
By Thom Ernst
Rating: C
On the surface, The Forever Purge, the fifth in the Purge franchise, appears to be making a strong and guided statement about the political divide in America.
But not only is that too much to hope for, it’s also too much to ask of a film that structures its moral backbone on 12 hours of uninhibited violence. (Also, the "Forever” part sounds like a threat from where I’m sitting).
The similarities seem intentional between the film’s marauding mob of masked and costumed villains bent on taking back ‘their’ version of the good old U.S.A and the self-professed patriots who stormed the White House on Jan. 6.
But before crediting the film with any political savvy, note that The Forever Purge (possibly soon to undergo a title change to The Outlaws) was ready for release in July 2020 - long before anyone thought to run through the white house bare-chested with face painted and wearing a horned fur hat.
The Purge films are not without their politics, albeit just enough to rationalize their commercially profitable blood lust. What better way to kick back and enjoy a movie inundated with violence than by framing it within a story that actively criticizes violence? (Think back to the success of early Biblically themed films depicting orgies, incest, and drunkenness to the righteous delight of the morally outraged. It’s okay so long as if you despise what you’re seeing.)
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The Purge franchise, which endures longer than it deserves, imagines a social agreement that allows otherwise decent, law-abiding people 12 hours act out their most vile urges without fear of reprimand. The conceit here is that given an outlet for the darkest instincts reduces impulsive day-to-day acts of violence. It’s a lousy theory but makes a good premise for a horror film. Or at least it should.
In place of tension and dread, first-time feature film director Everardo Gout imposes scene after scene of explosions, burning debris, and rampant gunplay, interspersed with people leaping from dark corners yelling, “Forever Purge!” as if to identify themselves to the heroes as villains.
Forever Purge opens on the morning of the 12-hour siege of terror. The salt-of-the-earth patriarch of a Texas ranch family (Will Patton) prepares for the night by doling out ‘purge bonuses’ to his ranch hands, including two Mexican immigrants, Juan (Tenoch Huerta) and his friend (Alejandro Edda).
The sirens sound to end the purge and clean-up in the streets begins, but for some reason the killing continues. It becomes clear that the Purge has taken on a new life.
The Purge has grown beyond merely sanctioning acts of revenge, greed, and sport. It is now the adopted manifesto of far-right factions to dutifully take arms against those they see as undesirables and against those who oppose their moral obligations to do so. In terms of the Purge legacy, it’s a logical next step in the narrative.
With all of America under siege by extremists, most of them evil-spouting maniacs sporting swastikas, Juan must lead his wife (Ana de la Reguera), the rancher’s family, Dylan (Josh Lucas) Harper (Leven Rambin) and Dylan’s pregnant wife, (Cassidy Freeman) through a gauntlet of red-necks and psychopaths.
But the insinuating promise The Forever Purge has of a free-for-all display of mayhem and violence is never fulfilled. The violence is surprisingly understated, glimpsed through the window of a passing vehicle, or witnessed from a safe distance.
And though you can sense the influences of Mad Max, Escape from New York, and even a few influential forces from Walter Hill’s The Warriors, The Forever Purge remains an uncinematic thriller unworthy of breaking a lengthy stay away from the theatre.
The Forever Purge is directed by Everardo Gout and stars Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Alejandro Edda, Josh Lucas, Leven Rambin, and Cassidy Freeman. The Forever Purge opens in selected theatres beginning July 2, 2021.