"The Forever Purge" gets politically loaded, effectively blunt franchise back on track
Another Fourth of July, another “Purge” movie. This franchise has always been a daring and interesting one — and they have always been politically loaded and effectively blunt. Once the fascinating concept of the 2013 original film recalibrated itself, redirecting the focus more on the have-nots in the next installments allowed these movies to become the rare series that kept getting better (almost) with age. Since 2016’s scarily prescient “The Purge: Election Year,” all subtlety has been throw out the window to discuss America’s ideological divide, and that confrontational approach continued with 2018’s sometimes incendiary but mostly clunky and superfluous “The First Purge.” The quality of the series gets back on track with the fifth and allegedly final entry, “The Forever Purge.” Wonders never cease that this is a pretty potent and still close-to-home piece of violent entertainment that speaks its mind, like a loud and proud American.
You know the drill: the New Founding Fathers of America give the nation’s people a one-night-only carte blanche to let off some violent steam. It’s a national holiday, where Purging is the American way! While “The First Purge” went back to how it all began, “The Forever Purge” continues on the path of the NFFA regaining control and reinstating the annual Purge with a surge of white supremacy across the country, kind of like the news headlines in the real world. Ten months after a married migrant couple, Juan (Tenoch Huerta) and Adela (Ana de la Reguera), have fled from a drug cartel and crossed the border into Texas to live the American Dream, it’s the eve of their first Purge. Adela works at a butcher shop, while Juan and fellow undocumented migrant, T.T. (Alejandro Edda), work as farmhands for the rich, white Tucker family and get paid a “Purge protection bonus” by patriarch Caleb (Will Patton). That night, the Tuckers, including Caleb’s adult children Dylan (Josh Lucas) and Harper (Leven Rambin), along with Dylan’s pregnant wife Cassie (Cassidy Freeman), hunker down, while Juan and Adela join a migrant community in a shelter with military protection. For those 12 hours, they all survive the night. Unfortunately for both families, a movement known as “The Purge Ever After” commences, going beyond those 12 hours to purify the nation. Is anyone safe even when the sun comes up? Our survivors will only have 6 hours to get out of Texas when the borders of Mexico and Canada open for unarmed Americans and hook up with anti-Purge tribal leader Chiago (Zahn McClarnon).
Written by James DeMonaco—who has remained steadfast in writing all of the “Purge” films, as well as being the creator for two seasons of a “Purge” TV series—and directed by Everado Valerio Gout, “The Forever Purge” remains as direct and upsetting as ever. Anyone complaining that it isn’t subtle or too political was clearly sound asleep during the first four movies. Here, the film builds with micro-aggressions, setting up the family of white characters and their differing beliefs versus Juan and Adela just wanting to build a new life. The lawless Purge Night is suitably tense, even if it turns out successfully crime-free within our circle of characters, but even for the sake of a jump scare, a pregnant wife probably shouldn’t sneak up on her armed husband during a tumultuous holiday. Once the film reaches its boil, it dives straight into a mostly daytime-set nightmare. Adela finds herself in a cattle-gun trap that would probably make Anton Chigurh smile. Gun-happy cowboys show their face paint where bandanas should be. A Nazi-tatted man and a Harley Quinn wannabe in the back of a truck cackle at the mayhem outside and get off on the symphony of gunfire. It's all alarming stuff.
Placed in a newer, even more dangerous context concerning immigration, “The Forever Purge” is surprisingly more resonant, even if it can be unpleasant. As the series has segued from home-invasion horror to urban survival action-thriller, this one goes the dusty western route. Writer DeMonaco blesses the script with interesting and resourceful characters of both colors, and Ana de la Reguera and Tenoch Huerta are most sympathetic and committed to this material as Adela and Juan. Patton is especially good as Caleb, a proud American who can still acknowledge the confusing times they live in and how the Purge is just “an American-born virus of hate and rage.” Despite a silly use of the stock “Wilhelm scream” that may be a nod to classic westerns, there is solid craftsmanship from director Gout on display. The action, sometimes shot in single takes, on fiery streets is thrilling and proficiently staged. A set-piece late in the film is frightening, as Purgers lie and wait in the bowels of a movie theater as if it were a lair of sleeping vampires ready to pounce (coincidentally, the theater is still playing “Dracula”). Finally, a Mexico-set standoff delivers the cruel comeuppance. Increasingly visceral in its catharsis, “The Purge Forever” keeps one alert and caring for the characters on the right—er, correct—side of the Purge. After five movies and two seasons of a TV show, it might be time to call it a day and stick a fork in this franchise, but for now, Purge Forever.
Grade: B
Universal Pictures is releasing “The Forever Purge” (103 min.) in theaters on July 2, 2021.
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