Need To Purge?

There's something about 'The Purge: Anarchy' that people connect with. Who can blame them with headlines being what they are?

In years past, we went to the movies to enjoy watching an audience surrogate do things we wanted to do but couldn't. Used to be, that was blowing up space aliens with laser blasters or outrunning the cops in fast cars down country roads. The good guys looked cool, the bad guys looked foolish, and we felt better about ourselves and life in general. It was a healthy release -- old-fashioned venting.

Things have evolved, needs have changed. Now, when we go to the movies we don't just need to vent, we have to eliminate vile poisons from our system, and that calls for an entirely new level of gruesomeness in the plot of horror/action movies. Regular heroes navigating standard scenarios won't do anymore. The plot prescription for a contemporary audience includes an absolute reversal of law and order, an uprooting of society's underpinning, and Hollywood has responded with a new classification of film: Purge Cinema. (That the movie is entitled 'Purge' is purely coincidental, but you gotta like that).

Hate the news? Feel like killing someone, or maybe a bunch of people? Well, before you go over the edge sit down with a soda and large popcorn and watch this. You'll feel better, we promise.

You could argue this isn't the first such product but I think the stuff that came before -- various horror flicks like Saw, superficial bad-boy action movies like 'Fast/Furious', anything that takes place in a cabin in the woods, etc. -- don't come close to the what's represented in the 'Purge' series. This is the first franchise that reflects our pent-up anger over what the world has become, and worse, is an expression of our fear of what may happen within a few years in real life, right down the street of any neighborhood, of any city.

Reaction online has been strong -- over 75K views today from one video alone, lots of comments, lots of people who think it will be great, people calling them idiots for thinking that. This will do well and we'll see more, especially considering the introduction of a new plotline at the end of this trailer -- the auctioning to the highest bidder of people to be purged. That, for sure, will be the subject of the next movie in the series. Then, comes a movie about the collecting, rounding up, of people to be purged, etc.

It won't end. The daily news will get worse, and movies will be tailored to reflect how that makes us feel. Not good or bad, just how it is -- possibly a central theme of 'The Purge: Anarchy'.