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Film: The Forever Purge
Year: 2021
Director: Everardo Gout
Writer: James DeMonaco
Starring: Ana de la Reguera, Josh Lucas and Will Patton
Review:
For this movie, I was really wondering what they were going to do with it. I personally enjoy this series, even though it can be a bit heavy fisted with its message. It is interesting that I saw someone complaining about this one because of the politics. What is interesting is that the concept is predicated on politics, but I’ll dive into that later. I will admit that I didn’t have the highest hopes, but still caught this in the theater. The synopsis is all the rules are broken as a sect of lawless marauders decides that the annual Purge does not stop at daybreak and instead should never end.
We start here with Adela (Ana de la Reguera) and her husband of Juan (Tenoch Huerta) as they illegally sneak across the border. One of the coyotes informs them that whenever they’re lost to follow the roses and it will lead them.
The movie then shifts us 10 months to get us to the present. The credits are given us with paintings and then we see a darker side to each one. This is an interesting allegory that on the surface, everything seems fine, but underneath are harbored rage. We also get to learn that everything from The Purge: Election Year has been undone. The people have voted back in the New Founding Fathers and they’ve reinstated the Purge. We are on the eve of the first one since. Juan works at a large farm that is run by Mr. Tucker (Will Patton). His son of Dylan (Josh Lucas) tries to a tame a new horse, but he fails. Juan is called in with father, son, daughter of Cassidy (Cassidy Freeman) and two workers watching on. One of them is Juan’s cousin of T.T. (Alejandro Edda) and another is Kirk (Will Brittain). Dylan and Juan don’t really get along.
Adela is working in a restaurant as a manager for Darius (Sammi Rotibi). He employs a lot of workers who are Spanish speaking and new to the country which Adela helps with since she is from Mexico. She also is pushing her husband to try to learn English as it will help them acclimate.
The following day Dylan is hard on Juan for accusations made by Kirk. Mr. Tucker tries to comfort Juan that Dylan means well. The older man also gives a bonus to all of his workers to survive the Purge that night.
We see that Adela and T.T. go to an armed compound with many other Mexicans living in Texas. It also shows us the duality with the Tuckers locking down their place as well as the farm to survive the night. We get see something odd there though. On of the cameras in the barn, we see someone run across the screen before disappearing.
As the world seems to be going back to normal after the most recent Purge, there are many people who have other ideas. Kirk and a group take over the farm. Adela is attacked at work. She is rescued, but the police catch her in the act of surviving, so she is arrested. This radical group is pushing something called the Forever After Purge. It isn’t just here in Texas, but all over the country. Even the New Founding Fathers have issues stopping what they’ve inadvertently created.
That is where I’m going to leave my recap and I want to start here back with what I was saying in the introduction. Complaining about these movies because they’re too ‘political’, you are better off just avoiding them than because they aren’t for you. Something else I want to address here in the start is targeting ‘conservatives’ with the premise. That is just playing the victim card. The New Founding Fathers is a political group that is more radical than the normal Republican. This is more of the Far Right Extreme. The only way this is targeting you is if you share the beliefs so if that is the case then, if the shoe fits.
With that out of the way, this movie is really in response to what happened with that radical group that attacked Washington D.C. This is just taking that smaller incident and showing what happens if you expand it to the extreme. Regardless of where you fall, there has been a lot of tension that has finally boiled over in the last year or so. Our former president wasn’t good at trying to calm these down either. This movie is playing with that. The New Founding Fathers believe the Purge is good to relieve tension. Dylan and Mr. Tucker in this movie point out that those partaking, who are poor, are just falling prey to what the rich want them to do which is kill each other off. This feels like a direct correlation to how the United States is going back to ‘normal’ despite the pandemic we just went through and seeing how things could work. The middle class are breaking their backs while the rich get richer. Instead of seeing this, we bicker amongst ourselves.
Something that I feel I need to bring back up here on this being an attack on conservatism. It can feel that way on the surface and I will agree that the previous 4 are showing those Republicans that fall for the Far-Right rhetoric. This movie is looking those that follow Qanon in my opinion. They aren’t explicitly saying that, since it uses allegory. This is an off-shoot though that is more extreme, thinking they follow what their leaders say to a tee and taking it upon themselves to ‘cleanse’ the United States. This is also pointing out groups like The Proud Boys. I feel if we had a Purge, they could potentially snap with tensions getting as high as they have been in the past year.
There are some issues with the story. The big hurray in the end of Election Year is now undone here. It feels like they wanted to end it there, saw there was potential for more, so they went with a prequel in The First Purge. When that or the television show didn’t do as well as they really wanted, they decided to continue on with the story. I love franchises from the 80’s that do this, so I shouldn’t harp too much. Since this is based in reality, it just feels empty to me to do that. It doesn’t ruin this movie, but I think with the route they go here, they could have done something else, especially with who is behind this Forever After Purge.
Now the last thing I want to address with the story also involves the pacing with this movie being boring. I will admit that it does run a bit long. I think this could be trimmed by 15 minutes and it would run tighter. I understand why we have some things that we need introduced. The buildup works for me with showing that the Purge is back, the safety measures put into place before the real terror begins. Aside from that, I thought it moved along well enough.
Next, I will move to the acting. Something else I’ve been hearing is that characters don’t act like they really would in the real world. That is a legit critique due to the horror being based in that something like this could happen. I think that de la Reguera was solid as our female lead, but there is something that I feel was a bit much about her back-story. To survive an ordeal like this, you need luck or training so I can overlook it. Lucas does well in being this arrogant guy. I do like the character growth there that is what we all should do. Freeman is fine along with Rambin. The latter being pregnant adds another layer of tension, but I didn’t necessarily need it. I get the message with her in the end. I did like Huerta. All the Forever After Purgers are fine. How they look makes sense with what the movie is conveying. They are also caricatures of extremists, but it is what it is. I did like the cameo by Patton; I’m always a fan of him. I would say the rest of the cast was fine to round this out for what was needed.
Then the last thing to go into would be the effects. What I was surprised by was that we did get a bit of brutality for a mainstream movie. I’m not going to pretend like it was a lot, but for the most part what we got was good. There wasn’t as much CGI as I was expecting. I did like the scope of this. We are sticking with it being out and about while things are happening. The only CGI I remember was with blood spray or splatter but not enough to be an issue. The cinematography was fine aside from that.
So then in conclusion here, I thought this movie was better than the previous installment. This idea of who is behind this new Purge that is breaking the rules makes sense, especially with what those against it have been stating. It does correlate to something that happened in the US in recent memory of this movie’s release as well as writing this. I don’t have any issues with the acting and movie logic is there for me to get past decisions despite this being based in reality. The effects were solid enough and the soundtrack fit for what was needed for me. I do have an issue with the continuation of the story as the beginning here makes it feel empty with Election Year’s events. Regardless I still found this to be above average for me. I am curious with multiple viewings where this one would fall.
My Ratings: 7 out of 10