Releasing The Beast

So my man and I went to see the Purge. As far as your run of the mill horror movies go, it was mostly predictable and shitty. I don't recommend watching it until it's on TMN or something, or however it is that you kids watch free movies nowadays.

That being said, the reason we went to see it is because the idea behind it is fascinating. The basics, for those of you who haven't seen the trailer, is that in America, once a year for twelve hours, nothing is illegal. So from 7pm to 7am once a year, you can kill, loot, burn, rape, whatever it is that you want to do, and there are no police or emergency services available to anyone. For the rest of the year, life goes on, and there is no crime and unemployment is at like 1%.

Spoilers ahead, although the movie is so fucking predictable that I don't think it would really ruin anything.

This is such an interesting plot that of course my interest was piqued. The movie disappointed, but it did spark my boyfriend and I talking about it for about two days straight. So kudos to whoever thought of the concept, but the movie was lacking in the sense that it was only about one family in a house and didn't address any bigger issues.

Also this bitch was in it and even though she was one of the 'good guys', I still hated her the entire time. Which made me realize she's a really amazing actress. Because I will hate her forever.

So the basic plot of the movie is that this family has a snazzy security system to barricade themselves in their house. They have a teenage daughter and a younger son, and he doesn't really understand or agree with the Purge. When a man outside is screaming for help, the little boy lets him inside, and then a pack of incredibly terrifying rich kids show up and demand the guy back, saying if they don't get what they want, they'll break in and kill the whole family too.

Seriously, this guy's face is fucking SCARY.
www.onsecrethunt.com

The family decides to find this guy that's hiding in their house and give him up to save themselves. See, he's middle class, so he's meant to be killed during the purge. The killers outside even refer to him as 'swine'. When they finally do catch him, they realize that it's not right to give him up, and decide to fight instead. There's a lot of slasher shit, the kids are annoying and retarded, some horribly predictable action, a not-too-believable betrayal by the neighbours, and then the Purge ends.

And that's the movie. I'm pretty sure by the end of it this family wanted to move to Canada.

The only really thought provoking scene in the movie is when the little boy asks his parents why they don't go out and kill people. They respond that they don't feel the need to. He doesn't understand why they can be well adjusted moral human beings without killing once a year, while other people do have to. This, to me, is the most fucked up part of the Purge. The people that participate seriously believe that it's their 'god-given right' to Purge their souls, that they are entitled to it. But the mere fact that some people don't need to do it to be normal (aka not serial killers), means that the people that are 'purging' are still fucking psychopaths.

The whole idea that humans have this beast inside them that needs to kill in order for them to be functioning members of society? I don't buy it. People that have a 'beast' that makes them want to torture and kill? They're not good people. And in the universe of this movie, at any moment on the bus, at the grocery store, at the bar, you could be standing next to someone that has maimed people. That is, in my mind, so unacceptable I can't even fully wrap my head around it.

Now, the reason why the Purge exists is never actually addressed. Some of the characters talk about how it Purges their soul, so it's almost seen as a religious thing, but I doubt that the church was what started it. My theory is that the American government wanted some population control, and what easier way to deal with it than to let people kill each other? The reason why there is no unemployment is because the unemployed get killed during the Purge. Only the rich can properly protect themselves with their fancy security systems. Thus all of the homeless people hiding in dumpsters get killed by the crazies out for blood.

Or at least most of them. And then what about us run-of-the-mill middle class people? If there were a Purge in Canada right now, I'd be fucked. We'd have to barricade the windows and doors with two by fours or something. Even then someone could still burn it down. I think the best way to do it would be to get the hell out of the country for a few days and hope that my house was still there when I got back. Or just head up north to the wilderness and keep moving until the twelve hours was up.

It's a chilling thought. I live in a small town, and my boyfriend and I were sitting there calculating how many people we think would actually participate in something like that. It's hard to tell what people's deep rooted fantasies and needs are, and most people probably wouldn't even know it was there until law was completely lifted. People can get crazy in crazy situations.

The other thing that wasn't addressed was everything other than murder. What about the people that don't want to kill, they just want to have some fun vandalizing or stealing stuff? What about all of the businesses? Would they have the money to barricade up their stores, or put all of their products in storage? Insurance must be super expensive and hard to get in this universe, or maybe insurance doesn't cover anything within the twelve hours of the purge. I seriously would not want to be a store owner in this movie.

But that's another question entirely. If middle class people and lower keep getting killed, gas stations blown up, grocery stores looted or burned to the ground, who the hell takes care of the rich people for the rest of the year? I mean obviously not everyone in the country is going to get killed, but how many places do you think are closed the next day due to it's owners dying or the buildings getting fucked up? "Ah, another purge done, let's go grab a Frappucino!" Whoops, Starbucks is closed because all of the people that worked there got killed last night. And none of these rich people would be caught dead working there, and there are no teenagers around trying to save up money for university, so no more Starbucks.

Honestly that wouldn't be such a bad thing. I make a way better frappe then them anyway. But you see my point.

My boyfriend brought up a good point about the jail system, too. If there's no law, do the doors open and all of the criminals get to go free? Or, during the first purge, did all of the wardens walk around killing every single inmate? Are there even jails anymore? If everyone waits until the purge to commit crimes, would there even be anyone in jail anyway? I guess you'd still have people that want to break the law during the rest of the year, but I doubt that we would have a ton of people occupying jail cells in that universe. And every year, they'd either get to run amuck or get killed by other inmates or the wardens, so they'd likely be fairly empty.

So in conclusion... I guess I don't really have a conclusion. I just wanted to talk about some of the things that I thought about during and after watching this movie. If you have any, I'd love to discuss them, it's such a fascinating idea. And scary, because things like this sometimes almost seem plausible to happen. Horrible things happen every day all around the world, and I try not to put things like this past people.

I am seriously stoked for people to start writing fanfiction about this! Go!

Jealousy Is Not A Fish You Should Catch

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.