Fiery Pen

(The gist: The Purge: Anarchy, like its predecessor The Purge, offers a chilling glimpse into our dark nature turned loose once a year on Purge Night. However, The Purge: Anarchy offers new and more in depth perspectives of the different socioeconomic groups involved, making it all the more interesting. It is the perfect complement to The Purge.)

The Purge introduced to a family made affluent by selling protection systems for Purge Night, an annual holiday where all emergency and civil services are suspended and all crime is legal. This family then has to survive the night when a poor man gets into their home and a group of purgers breaks through the protection system to retrieve him.

The Purge fascinated me on concept and held me captive on execution. People in the movie capitalized on a night of condoned mayhem and murder exactly the way I expect they would in reality; they “released the beast.”

Yet while The Purge was a quality horror movie and I enjoyed it, it focused on the wealthy upper class during Purge Night. I was far more interested in the sociology of the poor and middle classes in a scenario like that.

Enter The Purge: Anarchy.

The Purge: Anarchy takes the same setting (Purge Night) yet approaches it from a couple completely different perspectives. Rather than being contained in one rich house, the film takes us out on to the streets among the people, both survivors and purgers, poor and rich.

We see an elderly sick man martyr himself (sell himself to the rich as their purge). We see a man out to purge and gain vengeance for the death of his son. We see a mother and daughter caught out in the madness, trying to survive the night. We see a young couple targeted by a group of masked assailants. We see an auction to hunt the poor. We see the government augmenting the purge murder numbers. We see the resistance to Purge Night.

The Purge: Anarchy gives us everything we were wondering about this new world under the New Founding Fathers of America from its predecessor. The film provides a range of characters and situations to provide a more holistic picture of the fascinating concept of purging. With so many more angles and perspectives, the concept becomes all the more intriguing.

Plus The Purge: Anarchy remains true to its predecessor in that it attains a creepy factor through the savagery of the purgers, of that glimpse at what people would be if the rules and the punishments did not exist. It honestly makes you consider who you could truly trust in your own life should they be allowed to do whatever they wanted for just one night. Would your neighborhood blow your door down with a shotgun? Would your wife slaughter your mistress in the living room?

These questions are real and legitimate, which is what makes the exploration of them intriguing.

Both The Purge and The Purge: Anarchy become fascinating and terrifying windows into our own nature. I prefer The Purge as far as acting, pace, and composition. However, I favor The Purge: Anarchy for story, concept, and perspective depth. The combination of the two make for the perfect start of a quality horror franchise.