Film Review: The First Purge

Gotta say, not a huge fan of the title, The First Purge. Feels like the kind of title that would lead to some “who’s on first” scenarios.

“Hey, wanna go see The First Purge?”

“The first Purge? That movie’s awful.”

“What? No. The First Purge. The new one.”

“The new one is the first one? Is it a reboot?”

“No, it’s just called The First Purge.”

“So, it’s not the first one.”

“I guess it’s more like the fourth one.”

“Are you sure it’s not called The Fourth Purge?”

Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Anyway…

The Purge franchise has been a fascinating experiment to watch unfold. It’s the closest thing we have to exploitation films in the mainstream (at least all the ones after the first), utilizing current political anxieties as a means to create a sort of low budget John Carpenter riff and getting nasty, mean kills along the way. James DeMonaco has been the shepherd behind the series, serving as writer and director for all the previous films. However, for this new installment, The First Purge, DeMonaco handled the script but the director’s chair was taken over by Gerard McMurray, who was a producer on Fruitvale Station, and helmed the 2017 Netflix college hazing drama, Burning Sands.

Taking place before the events of the previous films, this follows the events leading up to and during “the experiment,” a test put in motion by the new administration, led by the New Founding Fathers, and realized by Dr. Updale (Marisa Tomei). The testing grounds for the experiment is Staten Island, where we meet our cast of characters, a local activist, Nya (Lex Scott Davis), her well meaning but straying brother, Isaiah (Joivan Wade), and a drug hustler, Dmitri (Y’lan Noel), who find themselves forced to survive the night.

Even though the film is very much in line with the previous couple Purge films, it’s also clear that there is a voice behind the camera, specifically one that is African American. The films have gradually centered more on people-of-color and their perspective over the course of the films, and this one takes that extra step into being one that is very much about and commenting on the black experience in America.

That new perspective also allows for the film to take a deeper dive into the context surrounding the experiment – which will eventually become the Purge we all know – and giving it a relevant sense of gravity. It takes its time building up to the event, and even then, it doesn’t go into complete insanity immediately. There’s a lot of nice details woven into this space before the action really takes over. For example, the residents of Staten Island are free to leave before the experiment begins, but because this specific choice of location is made, one where there are a lot of struggling people in need of money – and coincidentally (or is it?) – a community filled with people-of-color, mostly African American. A $5,000 payout is used to incentivize people into staying, and even more money is promised if someone agrees to actively participate and “release their anger.” It forces many people to take up the offer because they have nothing else. After all, having the moral high ground doesn’t put food on the table.

As a work of neo-exploitation, it seems like McMurray also evokes classic blaxploitation in subtle ways, especially within the character of Dmitri. He is a dealer with command, confidence, and swagger, but has a heart of gold who cares about the people around him and his community. His performance is really solid here, and he has some serious potential to be a huge star. Plus, he handles action like a pro. One sequence where him and his group take out mercenaries dressed up as Klansmen got my audience cheering like crazy. Lex Scott Davis (who, by the way, was in the remake of Superfly) and Joivan Wade are good, but they get less to do as the films go on. The rest of the supporting cast is largely one-note and don’t contribute much except an occasionally fun line.

The lack of non-stop lunacy might be a drawback for some, but that was never an issue for me. If anything, some of the shoddy visual effects were distracting, especially whenever CG blood splatter was used. There were plenty of moments where you can practically see the budget drifting away, but none of these are that big of a deal. I was always more drawn to the ideas and the characters.

What The First Purge might lack in balls-to-the-wall insanity, it more than makes up for with a righteous fury that hits on our zeitgeist even harder than any of us could’ve expected. It’s proudly unsubtle about its politics, but we’re in equally unsubtle times, and there’s something I can really admire about that in a film being released in over 3,000 theaters across the country. I still don’t think these movies take its central premise as far as it can go, but it’s going for something, and no matter how sloppy some of the filmmaking gets, its purpose is always made clear. Even if the nature of it being a prequel makes it seem redundant or unnecessary, I like that this offers some glimmer of hope, in the sense that while the struggle to fight systematic oppression will be a long, hard, and seemingly endless one, it’s always going to be something worth fighting for.