FILM: The Purge: Election Year
CAST: Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell, Mykelti Williamson, Joseph Julian Soria
DIRECTION: James DeMonaco

The Purge franchise began in 2013 with an intimate story of a family fighting for survival in a world where the government has declared nothing is illegal for one night. One man’s act of compassion puts his family in danger.
The story got bigger with Purge: Anarchy, where the focus shifted to the city streets. Social issues were pushed to the forefront as it was revealed the night was just a way of masking how the government was using the legalised killing to reduce the homeless and poor population. This mix of violence and morality made for a nice blend.
Both films offered such interesting looks at the same theme. But there is little new The Purge: Election Year can offer. It ends up little more than a retread of the first two movies.
James DeMonaco, who wrote and directed all three Purge films, tries to mine some personal connections through Joe (Mykelti Williamson), the owner of a small deli. He’s a man with a checkered past but a big heart when it comes to his community.
Joe and a few of his buddies come to the aid of Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), a presidential candidate running on the platform of abolishing Purge Night. She gets to experience the carnage on the ground level when she becomes the target of the political party opposing her.
Despite the predictability of the story, DeMonaco does an impressive job of building the intensity. He banks even heavier on the story being set in a world where anyone can be a killer and often is. Watching his movies is like walking through a Halloween haunted house: You know the scares are coming, but they still catch you off guard.
The high point of the violence comes outside Joe’s deli when a group of young women show up to avenge an incident from earlier in the day. The blood-covered young women, driven to violence by an insignificant situation, are the best representation of the insanity of Purge Night in the film.
Where DeMonaco stumbles is with the increase of social and political themes. In an effort to make those behind the Purge as evil as possible, DeMonaco paints them as being a blend of psychopaths, Nazis, racists and zealots.
This takes away the potential threats being more generalised and scarier. Part of the strength of the original Purge was that those attacking could be your next door neighbour. It’s the kind of situation that feels relatable. The third film loses that personal touch because of the grander themes.
The Purge: Election Year has its moments. And the tension the director has infused in the story is relentless. It’s just the unnecessary efforts to make the story bigger, coupled with a predictable plot, that leave it the least compelling of the Purge movies. – Tribune News Service