Synopsis
Given the country's overcrowded prisons, the U.S. government begins to allow 12-hour periods of time in which all illegal activity is legal. During one of these free-for-alls, a family must protect themselves from a home invasion.
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Cast
- Ethan HawkeJames Sandin
- Lena HeadeyMary Sandin
- Max BurkholderCharlie Sandin
- Adelaide KaneZoey Sandin
- Edwin HodgeBloody Stranger
- Rhys WakefieldPolite Leader
- Tony OllerHenry
- Arija BareikisMrs. Grace Ferrin
- Tom YiMr. Cali
- Chris MulkeyMr. Halverson
Recommendations
- 83
The Playlist
The Purge manages to be smart, scary, and subversive. - 70
Village Voice
As in so many Hollywood spectacles, the message and medium are at hopeless odds... Still, the set-up is arresting, the domestic scenes well observed and acted, and the payoffs involving that Roomba toy excellent. Also, a late-film twist isn't a surprise, exactly, but it is delicious. - 68
Film.com
There’s gold in the premise of “The Purge” and its dismissal of subtlety. But like the residents of its world, when given the opportunity, it drops restraint and goes for blood. - 60
Total Film
James DeMonaco’s blood-splattered thriller begins well before expiring slowly from multiple improbabilities. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
What should be a clammy exercise in claustrophobic, queasy tension becomes, in the hands of writer/director James DeMonaco, an underpowered compendium of over-familiar scare tactics and sledgehammer-subtle social satire. - 50
Variety
The film’s thudding shocks and predictability dull its edge. - 40
The Telegraph
This movie starts from a premise so sociologically batty it’s hard to take any of its subsequent terrors seriously, which means tension doesn’t so much fly out the window as fail to even get up the driveway. - 40
The Guardian
The film doesn't develop its one good idea so much as stumble around in the dark with it for 85 minutes, crashing noisily into the furniture.
