Fourths Of July: THE FIRST PURGE (2018)
I was in a road rage incident with my wife in Brooklyn - a guy cut us off, he was drunk as hell, he almost killed us… I got into a fist fight with this drunken lunatic. I get back in the car with my wife and she said something that stayed with me forever. She’s a nice woman, she’s a doctor so she didn’t really mean it. But she was passionately aggravated by this crazy person. So, she said, “I wish we all got one free one a year.” I knew what she meant. Then, it just stayed with me… this idea of a ‘holiday,’ just one day in a year.
– James DeMonaco (Creator of The Purge series and Writer of THE FIRST PURGE) on Indie Film Hustle Podcast
There have been many instances of filmmakers using genre to express how they feel about the state of the world. From George A. Romero to Joe Cornish, the use of zombies or aliens were merely window-dressing to explore the societal themes that compelled them. Alan Moore, writer of V For Vendetta, states to the BBC about the genre of sci-fi:
“As with most of the future worlds in science fiction, you’re not talking about the future… you’re talking about the present. You are using the future as a bit of room to move… a bit of a fantasy element. It makes it into something that is, once removed from the thing you’re actually talking about, people enjoy it on a (different) level; while hopefully some of the deeper points that you’re making are sinking in.”
A recent franchise that makes its author’s worldview apparent in an overt way is The Purge. James DeMonaco wanted to delve into America’s culture with guns and the Second Amendment. DeMonaco has intentionally avoided guns his whole life. When previously making films in France and Canada, he noticed the difference in their relationship towards guns:
“I woke up one day and came up with this idea of a holiday that I thought could be a metaphorical discourse on the lack of gun control in America… which was always very bothersome to me. How far can we take this? Where can this go? But in a very science-fiction, dystopian world… or Utopian way that the people who support The Purge claim it to be.”
The premise is simple: every year in the evening of March 21, all crime, including murder, is decriminalised. The intention is that it creates a supposed status quo of America being crime-free for the remaining days of the year.
The series started in 2013 with THE PURGE—a small-scale home invasion/siege horror movie, starring Ethan Hawke and Lena Headley. It shows the ‘Purgers’ threatening a family of four, wanting to infiltrate their high-tech security system in their house. It became a success for the studio, Blumhouse, and prompted a sequel. THE PURGE: ANARCHY removes the estate setting and takes it to the inner city of Los Angeles. It also changed the genre from small-scale horror movie to a wider-located action film. Furthermore, it introduces Leo Barnes played by Frank Grillo, who would also lead the third film, THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR. Here, Elizabeth Mitchell plays a presidential candidate, Senator Charlene Roan, who campaigns to ban The Purge. On Purge night, she is hunted down in the streets of Washington D.C. with Grillo’s character being her head of security. It is hinted that The Purge that took place on this night is the last as (SPOILERS) this film ends with Roan winning the election.
This brings us to the fourth film—THE FIRST PURGE (a title that creates a lot of confusion in conversations when trying to understand which film that phrase refers to). Everyone loves an origin story, and this is film is set on the very first Purge night that takes place in 2017. The NFFA (New Founding Fathers of America) are in power as is their leader President Bracken (Ian Blackman) and, as explained in the previous films, this is the party that created the idea of the Purge.
The movie opens with an interview with a prisoner and convict named Skeletor (a show-stopping performance by Rotimi Paul).
His face is decorated in scars and there are many close-ups of his rotting teeth. Skeletor talks about what makes him angry and the hate he wants to release on the world. It suggests that this character is the person who created the term “purge” for this event. Even though it only lasts a little over a minute, this scene sets a tone of dread and unease that lingers throughout the film.
THE FIRST PURGE takes place is Staten Island, NY and follows Nya (Lex Scott Davis) and her younger brother, Isaiah (Joivan Wade), as they try and survive the night while being hunted by mercenaries sent by the NFFA.
Isaiah starts the movie as a low-level dealer and then, initially, becomes recruited as a Purger.
The conditions are that the more murders they do, the more money they get in return. But Isaiah cannot go through with it and joins his sister in a fight for survival.
Even though the screenplay was written by DeMonaco, this was the first entry in the series not directed by him, with Gerard McMurray taking the reins. This was the wisest decision DeMonaco and producer Jason Blum could have made. Firstly, even though there is a lot of bombastic action in this movie, McMurray brings the series back to its horror roots.
As well as the movie being littered with jump scares, there is a plot-point where the NFFA are tracking the Purgers kills by having them wear contact-lenses with cameras in them. This not only allows the audience to identify who the Purgers are, but also makes for a scary visual:
Even though race is a prominent theme throughout the series (e.g., the family in THE PURGE are protecting a Black man from what look like white supremacists, the surviving characters aiding Barnes in ANARCHY and ELECTION YEAR are minorities), McMurray makes this film from a unique Black perspective. The character of Isaiah is alienated and troubled as he finds the only way to make a living is to sell drugs on the street corners. The only alternative is that he risks his life in a killing zone, subscribing to the idea that his life is expendable in order to make money.
Even the intentions of Dr. May Updale (Marisa Tomei) of conducting this social “experiment” is at the plight of brown and Black people. The conspiracy that has been apparent since the second film is that The Purge was being used as a means to bring down the population of the lower classes. In this film, it is confirmed as Arlo Sabian, the Chief staff of the NFFA (Patch Darragh, in full-on slimy mode), uses their own mercenaries disguised as Purgers to create their own ‘ethnic cleansing.’
NOTE: As the film was released in 2018, this part of the story makes it weirdly prescient: - a couple of years later during the Black Lives Matter protest marches, it was rumoured that alt-right agents were making themselves out to be protestors but vandalising and looting instead.
Who comes to the rescue to save Nya and Isaiah? Drug kingpin and Nya’s ex-boyfriend, Dmitri Cimber… played by the very one and only, Y’LAN NOEL:
Taking over Grillo’s position of the action star lead are pretty big shoes to fill. But Noel is perfect for this character. The role is a great display of what the actor is capable of. He has the presence, physicality and swagger that holds the screen so well. Why he has not been cast in a big role in a major movie franchise perplexes this particular writer (CAST HIM NOW).
Noel followed on from this performance by appearing in supporting roles in smaller feature films such as SLICE, THE WEEKEND, THE PHOTOGRAPH, and A LOT OF NOTHING.
He is re-teaming with McMurray for a TV adaptation of Blacksploitation classic movie and novel THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR.
McMurray has not directed anything of note since THE FIRST PURGE other than an episode of the reboot of The Twilight Zone. Lex Scott Davis also co-starred in A LOT OF NOTHING along with other appearances in TV shows such as the new volume of The L Word.
A fifth Purge movie was released in 2021, THE FOREVER PURGE, written by DeMonaco but directed by Everardo Valerio Gout. It takes place eight years after ELECTION YEAR as American residents try and escape to Mexico after NFFA are re-elected and reinstate The Purge.
However, in this fascinating and highly entertaining film franchise, THE FIRST PURGE sticks out as being the film that takes on its themes of eugenics, class war, and racial alienation head-on. An unforgettable film with a lead performance that hints at a star being born.
