The Purge: Election Year

This is real life. After insisting that he’ll “Make America Great Again” throughout his 2016 campaign, president-elect Donald Trump is already trying to trademark the slogan for his re-election campaign in 2020: “Keep America Great.” If that phrase sounds at all familiar to you, that’s because it was the tagline for The Purge: Election Year — James DeMonaco’s horror sequel, which envisions a dystopia where the government is controlled by far-right conservatives and all crime, particularly murder, is legal for one night every year.

Looking for something to watch this week? Overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices? Ready to give up and take a nice long walk outside on a crisp fall day?

Although the holiday weekend brought out a slew of new releases to compete for the top spot at the box office, this week’s top 10 was, once again, dominated by Finding Dory. The Legend of Tarzan, The Purge: Election Year and The BFG ultimately couldn’t quite match up to Pixar’s forgetful fish, but the final results were all over the place. This chart is very much a roller coaster of expectations being met and missed.

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.

Violence in the streets. Civic unrest. Intractable ideological divisions. Is this the latest installment of The Purge or a documentary about the 2016 election?

It’s time once again for America’s favorite holiday dedicated to murder and wearing creepy masks! It’s The Purge!