Rated R for strong/bloody violence, and language throughout.
In 2040, United States Presidential nominee Charlie Roan successfully dethroned the New Founding Fathers of America and abolished the Purge, the national holiday where all crime, including murder, is legal for 12 hours. With the vast majority of the public knowledgable of the NFFA’s true purpose of using the Purge to eliminate lower income citizens, many were willing to do away with the event once and for all. However, since the abolishment, American anger and hatred continued to grow. So, following the end of President Roan’s two terms in 2048, the NFFA is voted back into office and immediately reinstate the Purge. But with so much time without the annual event of lawlessness, those who support it aren’t willing to let it go again. Following the ending of this latest Purge, millions of America’s across the country refuse to stop rampaging when the sirens sound. As chaos and murder begin to consume the nation, Mexican couple Adela (Ana de la Reguera) and Juan (Tenoch Huerta), who illegally came to the United States before the Purge was reinstated, are forced to fight back alongside the wealthy Tucker family, Dylan (Josh Lucas), his wife Cassie (Cassidy Freeman), and his sister Harper (Leven Rambin). They’ll have to work together to reach a safe haven as America falls to pieces around them. The Forever Purge, the fifth and final installment in Blumhouse’s very successful Purge franchise, goes for broke in trying to bring it to a close. The film sheds all of what little subtly the series had to begin with and throws us into a full blown apocalyptic disaster where Americans finally turn on each other. In a normal world, this would have been a fun piece of “what if” science fiction. But after everything that has happened in the last year, this film has become much more relevant, and as a result, The Forever Purge is easily the scariest film in the series. Right from the beginning, there’s a foreboding atmosphere that constantly kept me on edge. The film opens with a montage of paintings that show a picturesque America before each one transforms into a terrifying visage of violence. Then, in the lead up to the Purge itself, there’s a constant presence of an occult-like symbol used by the Forever Purgers. It’s an incredibly tense setup that really unsettles you. You know something big is coming, and the movie makes it feel like the end of the world, because that’s what it basically becomes. It all boils to a 2nd act that gave me chills I haven’t felt since 2018’s Hereditary. From there we’re presented with the same skillful action that the series excels at. There are still many graphic kills and thrilling action sequences. New director Everardo Valerio Gout crafts an effective mix of action and gore like James DeMonaco and Gerard McMurray brought to the first four movies. But now that the Purge violence is happening during the daytime, there’s an extra, terrifying layer that makes it much more disturbing. The action is helped by the film’s cast. Featuring no appearances or mention of characters from previous films, we’re given an entirely new ensemble led by Reguera and Huerta. The two not only prove themselves capable of handling the film’s most horrific action scenes, but also have a great chemistry that make them feel like a genuine couple worth rooting for while they try to survive the collapsing nation. There’s also the film’s handling of the other characters. While the movie has a lot of racist jerks running around, the central Tucker family isn’t apart of that group. They are initially implied to have racist views of Adela and Juan, but the film’s few character moments reveal this to not actually be true. It’s just great that the movie doesn’t flatly call all white people racist, showing there to be a variety of people in the chaos. The Purge franchise has always been about old-fashioned exploitation fare that screams without really saying anything. And The Forever Purge is no exception, finally tossing out all good people think the Purge brings but really is more of a pulpy action flick. This is what makes this film, and really the entire series, as fun as it is. They’re all fantasy fulfillment films that use topical themes as jumping off points for bloody fun. That’s really all they can be, but that’s all they need to be. The Forever Purge brings the series to a satisfying conclusion with a movie that feels much more relevant then when it was shot back in 2019. Shifting the Purge violence from nighttime to daytime makes for an incredibly intense atmosphere that almost makes the film more upsetting than terrifying. But thanks to some great action that expertly combines violence with horror and a cast of capable leads, this series ends on a high note that puts a bloody punctuation mark on everything the franchise stands for.
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