Rating: 15
Directed by: Gerard McMurray
Starring: Marisa Tomei, Y’lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis
‘WITNESS the birth of an American tradition’ is emblazoned on the poster for this horror prequel.
The Purge franchise started out as a near-future, near-dystopian horror flick where once a year, all crime becomes legal for 12 hours.
The pulpy movies are examples of what powerhouse horror production company Blumhouse does best: films low on budget but high on creative scares.
The First Purge does what it says on the tin, taking you back to the debut incarnation of the annual crimewave.
It shows how ambitious psychologist Dr Updale (Tomei) conceived of the idea and radical political party The New Founding Fathers of America made it happen.
On a quarantined Staten Island, The Purge offers impoverished residents financial reward for sticking around for the duration, and a bonus for participation.
But more than anything, the scariest thing about this Purge movie is how close to plausible it gets.
The NFFA are backed by the NRA. The project is a political play against the poor. And the violence is bloody, brutal and for the most part, racially motivated.
The movie largely centres in on purge protestor Nya (Davis), gang boss Dmitri (Noel) and Nya’s brother Isaiah, who is torn between his two role models.
Davis puts in an earnest performance, rightfully struggling against what is an obviously outrageous government plot.
And Rotimi Paul is initially scary - if excessive - as Skeletor, a ritualistically scarred psychopath who takes to the slaughter like a fox in a hen house.
But in reality, the movie is less a horror and more an action flick. And this is where Y'lan Noel gets to shine.
The NFFA send in white supremacist groups and mercenaries to stir up trouble, expecting the community to turn in on itself. But instead, Dmitri rallies his gang members and sets about fighting back. And Y’lan transforms into an action hero.
Is that action ridiculous? Absolutely. Things rapidly escalate into shootouts where gang members are dual-wielding machine guns, running through smoke and facing down mercenaries decked out in minstrel masks and Nazi trench coats.
But The First Purge has never claimed to be anything other than a punchy b-movie, despite the unnerving relevance and plausibility of some of its themes.
The element where the movie shows its budget the most is also probably its most expensive.
Casting Marisa Tomei as Dr Updale makes sense, a big name actress to match the responsibility of spawning the conceit the whole franchise is based on.
But she is given precious little to do, other than stare concerned at CCTV and deliver dry pseudo-psychology. There’s more than one instance when you get the creeping suspicion a green screen or body double has been employed.
And some of the other exposition - such as a news anchor realising everyone is wearing masks, in an attempt to explain why all the others have also featured people decked out in their Hallowe’en finest - make you groan rather than scream.
For all that, The First Purge does remain fitfully entertaining, even if it is scarier in its modern relevance than in anything actually seen on screen.
2/5
The First Purge is in cinemas now.
