Most of us who watch films are familiar with the Purge series, those movies with a reorganized government instituting an annual purge night in the United States where any and all crime is legal for 12 hours.
The upper crust have massive parties to congratulate each-other, the middle class either batten down the hatches or prepare to fight, and of course the bottom rung folk just run wild through the streets. Some people go crazy with costumes, and some crawl into a hidey-hole and pull the entrance in after them, but everyone knows about Commencement Day coinciding with Purge Night, and that after the siren sounds, all hell is going to break loose.
Over here in the slums and already gang-ridden part of town, a former Marine (Gabriel Chavarria) now home searches through the grime and homeless folk for his missing sister, trolling down the streets in his lone car and night-vision goggles, giving a reason to use that surreal night-effects filter the Purge franchise is known for. The streets are clogged with killers and revelers, some in outlandish costumes and, yes, furry head-coverings of all kinds are being sold, to the murderers that qualify any and all Purge affiliates as Horror.
Across town in the business section one firm prepares to waive their rights to purge and work on a foreign business deal all through the night, only that one floor they’re working on can be guaranteed safe by security from all Purge activity, they’re adamant on this point. The team lead may be a bulldog about her job and getting these foreign contracts done by morning, but she’s of course up to some shady Purging nonsense all on her own later.
Elsewhere there’s a busload of fanatics in baby-blues, going to offer themselves up in glorious sacrifice to those who feel the need to Purge in that way. Yes true believers, they are the glory of their selfless giving, and they pray and fervently believe as best they can on the way to the killing grounds, that this really is the right thing to do. The people under those awful rabbit masks, gripping axes with which they’re going to rend another human into meat, might disagree, but by then the only people speaking are the ones still on the bus. Still chanting and waiting for their turn to be chosen, to participate in their own way, in the Purge.
Much further uptown, our nervous middle-class couple who want desperately to make the climb higher are attending a high-class ball, I mean fundraiser, at one of the Founding Father government party soirees. If you bother to pay attention to what plots there are in the Purge movies, you’ll recall the Founding Fathers government is quite cheerful about the violence and purgative effects of the Purge, and tonights’ party is no different. The guests are invited to sport masks of infamous and ultra-famous murderers of times past, including the likes of Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and even Lizzie Borden, as they mingle and further carve up the American way of life for themselves. And that’s hardly the worst thing likely to happen at a high-class Purge party – the night is young.
The series is being billed as a 10-part miniseries slated to run on the USA network every Tuesday night at 10/9c, so lock your doors and sharpen your cutlery, The Purge is here!
All of the spoils of war can be found in The Purge Season One, available on Hulu now!