This may surprise some readers but I think this movie is pretty darn good.  I gave the first Purge just two stars back in 2013, and I must have missed the second one, The Purge: Anarchy, in 2014, but I do appreciate the premise of all three works, which places them soundly in the realm of social science fiction.  Now I wish I had seen the second one, because this third one, still written and directed by James DeMonaco, has improved the formula and brought it full circle to the first one.

DeMonaco’s premise is that one night a year, for twelve hours, all crime is legalized — including murder.  This annual “purging” of sins allows everybody to behave the rest of the year, knowing that they’ll have the opportunity to blow off steam, and other people’s heads.  It’s a crazy social experiment that likely would keep some people from terrifying and bullying others, until that one night.  And the film explores the need for that release, as well as the dire consequences it has for the unfortunate victims.

This third film politicizes the process, insisting that the politicos who have been in power for twenty years have kept the murderous night as a mainstay of their social program because it cheapens the cost of governing; most of the victims are the homeless and the poor, whose loss is actually a boon for the government.  One senator (Elizabeth Mitchell) is demanding to put a stop to the annual night of terror, and as a result is targeted for assassination during the current Purge.  Only a cunning and ruthless security officer (Frank Grillo) can keep her alive as she is forced onto the mean streets of Washington D.C. on the one night where anything goes.

This would all be violent hokum without solid writing and characters we care about — and both are present.  The senator’s predicament actually takes a back seat to that of a local merchant (Mykelti Williamson) and his friends (Joseph Julian Soria, Betty Gabriel), who become instrumental in keeping the senator alive.  Things get a little cumbersome and preachy at the end, but this mix of vigilante violence, righteous revenge and bloody action is a winning combination.  There’s a lot of heart in the story and a hopefulness that is most welcome in this dark scenario.  It’s bloody good fun.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  15 July 2016.