James DeMonaco

The final installment of 'The Purge' offers plenty of bloodshed against a rural Texan landscape.

Series creator James DeMonaco claims he’s got an idea in mind that would finally purge the franchise from theaters once and for all.

Curious though we were about The Purge world its other 364 days, we had to wonder about a TV series without its title threat. Thankfully, franchise boss James DeMonaco has purged his old comments, claiming SYFY and USA’s new Purge will indeed purge to its heart’s content.

The new ‘Purge’ movie gets political and shows the origins of the violent anarchy.

The Purge movies have continued to act as unforgiving social and political satire, as unsubtle as they are violent, and that trend will only go further in the next installment in the series. The fourth film, titled The Purge: The Island, takes place on the very first Purge Night, confined to the shores of Staten Island, and the concept sounds appropriately messed up.

Syfy hasn’t given up too many details of its proposed Purge TV series just yet, but with a fourth film gearing up in Staten Island, director James DeMonaco is opening up. Meet the cast of our new Purge TV series, and find out when in the series’ timeline the anthology takes place.

It was back in September we first heard that The Purge director James DeMonaco had in mind to develop an “interwoven anthology” series around the franchise, but with few updates since. Now, Blumhouse is reportedly co-producing a Purge series for USA and Syfy, and already writing.

Even though the story was more or less wrapped up at the end of The Purge: Election Year, we should probably get used to these movies, much like the Purge itself, happening about once a year. James DeMonaco, creator of the franchise and director of all three, will be back writing the screenplay and working closely with Universal to find a director for the fourth.

On the surface, The Purge would seem like a fairly singular theatrical event. The concept of one carnage-filled night a year works wonders in two-hour stretches, but would anyone ever be crazy enough try it as serialized TV? We might find out, as director James DeMonaco is reportedly developing an “interwoven anthology” series around The Purge franchise.

In 2013, The Purge introduced an interesting horror concept: In the not-too-distant future, the government allows citizens to commit violent crimes for one night each year. That first film featured a nice white suburban family besieged by yuppie college kids, only fleetingly paying any mind to more fascinating ideas about class warfare. The Purge: Anarchy further established the mythology of the franchise by weaving a “one percent vs. the 99 percent” element into a tale of revenge. In 2016, we have The Purge: Election Year, which turns the sociopolitical commentary up to 11 in the most ridiculous, relevant installment of the series yet. Far from nuanced allegory, the sequel splits the difference between satire and low-brow camp in a film that could just as easily be The Idiot’s Guide to Being Woke in 2016.