The Purge: Anarchy
James DeMonaco
The concept of letting criminals run wild legally for a specified 12-hour period was first presented in last year’s The Purge. Then, the action was largely confined to one particular house and household.
The sequel takes to the streets and the view is not a pretty one. Apparently, a prerequisite of going on a crime spree seems to be dressing up in ghoulish masks and the like. This is Halloween on steroids.
Anarchy does not really do anything fresh with the concept but merely assembles a ragtag group of characters who are forced to rely on one another in order to survive the night. There is a girl who keeps asking pesky questions and an impetuous guy who keeps doing stupid things, all in the name of propelling the story forward.
More could have been done with a surreal sequence of rich folks hunting humans for sport in a dark maze. It is a concept familiar from films such as Battle Royale (2000) and The Hunger Games (2012) but it remains chilling to see class warfare made literal.
(ST)