The First Purge

Name: The First Purge
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Horror, Crime
Released: July 4, 2018
Duration: 98 min
Rating: 54
Cast: Aaron V. Williamson, Christian Robinson, Chyna Layne, Cloé Xhauflaire, David Breda

2018

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Critics

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 108 Ratings

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4.6

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4.6	Your Score
4.6	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 108 Ratings

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The First Purge (Trailer 1)

Movie Details & Credits

Universal Pictures | Release Date: July 4, 2018

Starring: Aaron V. Williamson, Christian Robinson, Chyna Layne, Cloé Xhauflaire, David Breda, Geoff Schuppert, Jermel Howard, Jessica Bell, John P. McGinty, Joivan Wade, Kristen Solis, Lauren Vélez, Lex Scott Davis, Maria Rivera, Marisa Tomei, Melonie Diaz, Mo, Mugga, Omari Hardwick, Patch Darragh, Qurrat Ann Kadwani, Rotimi, Rotimi Paul, Steve Harris, Y'lan Noel

Movie Facts: The first three Purge films (The Purge, The Purge: Anarchy, and The Purge: Election Year) made over $215 million in combined domestic box office.

Summary: To push the crime rate below one percent for the rest of the year, the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) test a sociological theory that vents aggression for one night in one isolated community. But when the violence of oppressors meets the rage of the marginalized, the contagion will explode from the trial-city borders and spreadTo push the crime rate below one percent for the rest of the year, the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) test a sociological theory that vents aggression for one night in one isolated community. But when the violence of oppressors meets the rage of the marginalized, the contagion will explode from the trial-city borders and spread across the nation.… Expand

Director: Gerard McMurray

Genre(s): Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Horror, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 98 min

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Awards & Rankings

93	#93 Most Discussed Movie of 2018

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Critic Reviews

Washington Post - Alan Zilberman

Jul 4, 2018

The result is an unabashedly violent B-movie throwback, the sort director John Carpenter used to make, with moments that resonate with real life. Read full review

Consequence of Sound - Randall Colburn

Jul 3, 2018

The First Purge is every bit as nakedly, hysterically symbolic as its predecessors. But if there’s one thing that the current political climate is teaching us, it’s that a subtle touch isn’t always the solution. Read full review

Los Angeles Times - Mark Olsen

Jul 4, 2018

It’s not difficult to decipher where McMurray and DeMonaco’s true allegiances are, but by delivering the story within the framework of genre cinema at its most trashy and garish, the filmmakers convey any message as a bit of rough pleasure amid the kicks and thrills of a movie. Read full review

The New York Times - Jeannette Catsoulis

Jul 3, 2018

Even the most ardent fan could find its bluntness uncomfortably timely: In our build-that-wall moment, a story about a government-sponsored plan to cull poor minorities feels less like political satire than current-affairs commentary. Read full review

Original-Cin - Jim Slotek

Jul 5, 2018

The First Purge has a lot of narrative and unsubtle subtext to cram into a movie that’s barely 90 minutes long. In fact, its big, violent finish notwithstanding, a lot of it is quite dull and its pacing inconsistent. Read full review

IGN - Nick Romano

Jul 4, 2018

While trying to hit the basic markers that have come to define a Purge film, The First Purge comes up empty when mining real-life tragedies as the backdrop for a summer movie. Read full review

San Francisco Chronicle - Carla Meyer

Jul 4, 2018

First Purge further lessens the drama by offering a hero and villains too mercenary to care about. Read full review

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User Reviews

dairia

Feb 24, 2019

purge is film where theres bad government that dislikes the poor and wants the rich to become spiteful and disrespect the poor so they can stop giving money to people who can't work or has low wage work.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Armywild

Jul 23, 2018

La película buena, la trama es original, sin embargo pudieron explotar mejor los argumentos del inicio de la purga,el inicio y final muy bien, desarrollo algo lento hasta poder ver acción Así que un 7 es mas que suficiente

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

TheQuietGamer

Nov 3, 2018

Gerard McMurray makes his mark on The Purge franchise. The thing that's kept me coming back to these movies has been their ability to get crazier with each successive entry and this is easily the most insane so far. A new hyper-stylish approach has been taken to the visuals. The smokyGerard McMurray makes his mark on The Purge franchise. The thing that's kept me coming back to these movies has been their ability to get crazier with each successive entry and this is easily the most insane so far. A new hyper-stylish approach has been taken to the visuals. The smoky streets with their ethereal glow and flashy block parties make it feel like a haunted house. The mask design is more creative and memorable than ever. As weird as it is to see what is chronologically the opening chapter adding sci-fi elements to the mix, those glowing-eyed contact lenses are a nice touch. It relishes in capturing the B-movie shlock with grindhouse-esque camera angles.

The politics of the series have always been questionable. Doing more to promote racism with it's highly segregated casting than not. This prequel might easily be the worst offender. No longer hiding behind the thin veneer of satire established by DeMonaco with the previous three films, McMurray is flat-out unsubtle with the symbolism that feels less timely, and more like fearmongering. The message is at odds with the actual content so even if it were the right time, this would never be the right movie.

It's hard to care about any of the characters as they're all a bunch of bland stereotypes. This is also the second dumbest Purge just after the original. The premise is that government is trying this event for the first time as an experiment and offering compensation to people if they'll stay on the island while it's happening with the promise of more money should they choose to participate further (i.e. actually commit crimes such as murder). When the time finally arrives they're surprised to find that no one is really doing anything. Gee, maybe it's because you guaranteed them a life-changing sum of money for just sucking air the night of the Purge. Given that all of this was the brainchild of a supposed social psychologist, you think they would have known going into it that when people realize they'll get paid for doing the bare minimum, that's all most of them are going to do. Especially in a situation where doing more would compromise their morals. That's like psychology 101.

Anyone will tell you though that the appeal of this series has never been it's story or characters, but the carnage. So it's a good thing this is one gloriously euphoric bloodbath. Y'lan Noel goes all Rambo in a low-rent apartment complex and a lot of throats are slit. With funny one-liners and tons of bloody action you can come into this expecting the usual entertaining madness. Just know that the subtext is more tone-deaf than ever.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

PipeC

Oct 31, 2018

A franchise that succumbs without a taste of its own medicine: purgation. With all the odds in its favor, Blumhouse has released its would-be summer hit in the form of a prequel of James DeMonaco's successful utopia — at least in box-office terms, — aiming at big dividends, mainly, inA franchise that succumbs without a taste of its own medicine: purgation. With all the odds in its favor, Blumhouse has released its would-be summer hit in the form of a prequel of James DeMonaco's successful utopia — at least in box-office terms, — aiming at big dividends, mainly, in American cinemas. If this is true, then it'd surely mean the elongation of this overwhelmingly worn premise for a couple of more years on the big screen, not counting USA Network's TV series. "The First Purge," an origin film about the birth of the controversial law that has grossed almost USD$ 320 million since 2013, is, by far, one of the most generic, tasteless and violent movies of the company since, paradoxically, the highly ambitious second installment of this same franchise starring Carmen Ejogo and Frank Grillo. "The First Purge" is probably the first and unique of the entire franchise that has a really considerable social-commentary dose, still and all its thick-headedness and inefficiency, since if it is compared with its predecessors/successors, Gerard McMurray strives to say something— via bestial, outrageous scenes that find a solution in controversial violence —about caustic inequality, race snobbery, political manipulation and bigotry, all clumsily enclosed in a political bubble that, strangely, never bursts. DeMonaco taking a back seat in favor of a "new" voice brings on drastic changes into the narrative and visual field; a moderately healthy decision. Although he doesn't enrich the mythos, neither fortifies its origins, he delivers a balanced approach in content but unbalanced in quality. On this occasion, the film doesn't know what it is, a "Get-Out"-ish social freak out or an unsurprising survival thriller, a dilemma drowned, as usual, by a range of ear-shattering stings. The characters, far from throwing away modern action film stereotypes, are easy preys to meaningless, cat's paws running around and butchering to preserve their lives. Fortunately, unlike the thousands of mindless horror offerings out there, here the relationships between the characters involve a sense of humanity, which automatically causes that, at some point in the film, we worry about the fate of these fictitious individuals. Peculiarly, antagonistic weight doesn't fall on a fixed actor, rather strongly belongs to wicked government intervention distorting the already nefarious experiment. This is one of its few strong suits, however, much like characters, the shallowness of this "villain" doesn't even try to fight audience's predictions, falling into "race against the clock" field over and over again, a lost race.

Y'lan Noel plays the tritely cold-blooded gangster/action hero in a good way, with a strange charm that ends up echoing among the audience. Unfortunately, Dimitri, his character, is portrayed as a violent, vengeful man, two adjectives that clash with the notion of savior in this kind of film. Lex Scott Davis is who delivers the best performance, even if her character is nothing but another indomitable girl; alright, she gets a special plotting push, but, in the end, is one more final girl saved by a super-man. Mugga, the usual Afro-American comedy-horror comic-relief, does quite well her work, is a positive addition to the melodrama that bathes part of the story. I'm absolutely confident that this film will be remembered for two huge disasters: one, R.I.P. promising premise; two, an unfairly wasted Marisa Tomei. They've muted Tomei's character and that's an unforgivable mistake. In the first two acts, the creative mind behind this "social catharsis" doesn't say more than six lines — the first one, in front of an egregious green screen —and as soon as the third act kicks off, a certain "twist" takes place and destroys everything. Marvel's new Aunt May could have been a dream villain, clearly, with a worthy-of-respect design and treatment; alas, it was the greatest sin of a ramshackle tragedy. "The First Purge" by Gerard McMurray is just another run-of-the-mill thriller; a rushed B-movie throwback that doesn't even set up DeMonaco's gloomy, eye-catching visual spectacle. But, at the very least, it does achieve to deliver an obtuse edge of complexity to a premise that was on its last legs, burying a meaty context that hardly will resurface, at least, with brand-new stuff. After an insufferably lengthy period of almost seven hours — the four films' runtime belonging to this franchise, — something has happened: the experiment has expired. Mixing together DeMonaco's ever-aggressive pulp imagery and McMurray's improvement of some storytelling purposes, a perversely violent-yet-juicy cinematic cocktail may have come out from all this madness, unfortunately, said utopia will never be a reality; the experiment is over.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

NightReviews

Oct 30, 2018

“Think of all the good the purge does.”

In 2013, the world was introduced to a small little independent horror film called The Purge. The basis of the film revolves around the idea that, for a twelve hour period, one day out of the year in the United States, citizens, residents and all“Think of all the good the purge does.”

In 2013, the world was introduced to a small little independent horror film called The Purge. The basis of the film revolves around the idea that, for a twelve hour period, one day out of the year in the United States, citizens, residents and all Americans are able to do whatever it is that they like, without any punishment or laws, including and not limited to; violence, vandalism, theft, rape and of course murder. While the first purge film in the series was revolutionary and kick started a franchise that is now in its fourth entry, the first film unfortunately limited itself to being, quite simply, a thrasher home invasion film with the world of the purge harrowingly surrounding it; the potential for the series was behemoth. Thankfully, the film gained steam and momentum, and more films followed, with the original director and writers on board. With the second entry, the world of the purge was explored to the streets of Los Angeles, where motives of revenge and redemption were explored and showed how regular people handled the deadliest night in America. In The Purge: Election Year, the purge got more political (not that it never was), especially since the looming potential of a somewhat clueless President was on the verge of being elected (he didn’t actually win, did he?).

Politics and tongue-in-cheek social/economically charge commentary is something that the purge series isn’t stranger to, especially within the last two entires in the series. But like any good planned B-Movie film series, the fourth entry in the series is also, technically speaking, the first movie in the series, a prequel. The First Purge is an interesting cinematic approach in terms of shock value, only because, the build up of whether the purge is a successful experiment is answered within minutes of the first film, so what is the point of this film?

Writer and original director of the first three entries, James DeMonaco, who’s love child is basically this series, decides to use the first purge film to show the divide between people and their thoughts on this “experiment”. Sanctioned by the New Founding Fathers of America, the newest political party, who is coincidentally backed any the NRA (National Rifle Association), and developed by scientist Dr.Updale (Marisa Tomei), “the experiment” (the initial name for the purge) was only taking place on Staten Island, one of America’s lowest income and poorly populated cities (coincidence). If you stay on the island, you get paid $5,000. If you participate in the experiment, you get monetary compensation; if you kill someone, well then you get compensated generously. These are all incentives for the residents of Staten Island.

While we quickly become familiar with the main inhabitants of Staten Island, we are also introduced to all the family drama happening on the island as well, for instance, the main protestor and the purge’s biggest rival is the educated and powerfully independent Nya (Lex Scott Davis), whose ex boyfriend Dimitri (Y’lan Noel) is Staten Island biggest gangster, and who’s brother Isaiah (Jovian Wade) is secretly joining in the purge’s festivities, to get back at a local crack addict for nearly cutting open is throat. While the streets belong to Dimitri, his heart still belongs to Nya, despite their past and current relationship woes.

As the experiment commences, we quickly see that many of the people involved and brave enough to withstand staying, spend most of their time praying, socializing or partying on the island. With the exception of the freaky looking crack head Skeletor (Rotimi Paul), who fashioned himself his own Freddy Kruger inspired claws made out of needles, Staten Island and its residents aren’t really purging as expected, unless you consider trap-music inspired street festivals as purging. So, like any good social/political experiment gone wrong in the United States, the government intervenes and sends out their own “citizens”, ex-mercenaries to kill and rid of low-income residents on Staten Island and cleanse the American genome. You can imagine, Dimitri, the only resident on Staten Island who profits from other people’s misery, isn’t happy when the government decides to take out his clientele, so, like any good business owner, who goes out himself to rid of his corporate competition.

There are many things wrong with the First Purge including the film’s main antagonist and protagonists. Perhaps thats the point, I mean, even the woman who developed the purge has her own scene of redmeption, but then again, how is a person redeemed of concieving such a diabolical experiment, especially when she sells it to the most corrupt clients in the world, the American government?… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

ZJH

Feb 10, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This horror movie is bad throughout.I can say”The Worst Purge”?It’s just a…I don’t want to use F-words.OKAY?… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

masscraft

Jul 15, 2018

Just like the last Purge movie, this is an extremely racially biased liberal hit piece. All the good guys are black or some other minority while all the bad guys are white. They even go so far as to put the white guys in KKK hoods and pseudo-Nazi uniforms this time. The hero’s are a mix ofJust like the last Purge movie, this is an extremely racially biased liberal hit piece. All the good guys are black or some other minority while all the bad guys are white. They even go so far as to put the white guys in KKK hoods and pseudo-Nazi uniforms this time. The hero’s are a mix of brutal gang banger drug dealers "with good hearts" and others "held down by the man". The government that starts the Purge is the NFFA, supported by the NRA, of course. It’s a mountain of sick, twisted liberal garbage at a time when minority employment is at historic lows. Movies like this keep black people on the dependent democratic plantation and do nothing but stir the racial hatred magnified during the Obama regime. Garbage.… Expand

6 of 12 users found this helpful66

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