The Purge: Election Year (2016)

The third film in a franchise that has promised so much and yet thus far failed to match that with execution, Election Year offers a new, yet intriguing idea to approach the annual Purge. The idea that for one night each year all crime is legal (including murder) is a fascinating one; and yet the first Purge film in 2014 focused more on the siege element of this, spending the duration mainly in one house. It was fine, but certainly didn't do enough to explore the idea; its follow up, The Purge: Anarchy (2014) took the camera to the streets in search of a different approach, again with average results. So with Election Year, The Purge franchise needed to evolve and explain the true politics behind the proposal, especially whilst integrating a presidential candidate as a central character with an election fast approaching. Once more, the plot is an absorbing one; if the senator (Elizabeth Mitchell) is elected, she will rid the country of the annual purge (we see in a brutal pre-title sequence why this is; her entire family was murdered on purge night several years previously). We also follow Joe, (a bad ass Mykelti Williamson, who seems incapable of ageing) as he plans to protect his store on purge night after the insurance company refuse to give him cover unless he pays an astronomical fee to them, on the day of the purge itself. His store is beset by two teenage girls early in the film, before the commencement of the purge; two indescribably vile human beings who try to shoplift and when confronted by Joe tell him they will scream rape if he tries to stop them. Joe is only saved when his friend Betty turns up. Later on, Betty helps him out once more; the two girls return after the purge has begun to torch Joe's store. In without doubt the most satisfying scene of the film, Betty drives a truck straight through the bunch of rotters. But this type of mayhem is, somewhat disappointingly, what the film decides to focus on and not the political dialogue that could have driven the series to new heights. We get no real hard evidence for the reasons of the purges' origins, no satisfactory ones anyway. The horrors of the purge are more pronounced than in previous instalments however, at least backing up the claims of why the idea is ludicrous with visual evidence. It is for all intents and purposes an exploitational B-movie, but it does mostly follow its own rules and proves its nastiness when it needs to. It's just a shame I was left wanting more genuine debates about the film's idea, and one wonders whether now that the franchise has garnered a large fan base, and is making money, whether they need to answer the questions I would like answered in future outings. 6.5/10