(Pocket-lint) - The Purge Universe is one of the most successful horror film franchises of all time.
The original movie, The Purge, which debuted in 2013, made $90 million at the US box office on just a $3 million budget. That was good enough for it to spawn a universe consisting of three sequels, a prequel, and even a TV series. As of right now, the entire franchise has brought in over $6.2 billion worldwide.
The synopsis behind The Purge Universe centers around an alternate version of the US - where once a year, for one day only, all crime is made legal. Perhaps making the situation even scarier, most of the purgers (aka the people doing all the killing in this dystopian reality) wear grotesque masks while committing their acts of violence. The films also tend to focus on a group of characters who are preparing for and trying to survive the 24-hour purge period.
At one point in The Purge, a horror film in which Americans are legally allowed to commit crime one night per year, a character laments that things will never be the same ever again. The line is cringe-worthy given that the character just watched people she loves hurt somebody without hesitation, yet you don t know anyone in the film well enough to care one way or another, and the camera jiggled so much during the violence that you only got teasing, migraine-inducing impressions of the act.
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Writer/director James DeMonaco, who previously scripted the surprisingly effective 2005 remake of John Carpenter s Assault on Precinct 13, cuts creative corners this way throughout The Purge. He often confuses economical story-telling with paint-by-numbers dialogue and vague characterizations. So instead of being a creepy B-movie about the necessity of suppressing one s animalistic urges, The Purge is just an uninspired film.