Although there have been about a million Purge movies (and a TV series), I believe The Forever Purge is the first to explore the revolutionary idea that even though all crime is legal for one day, what if some people didn’t stop Purging when the day was over? What if some people decided to keep committing crimes when it was illegal again? And how exactly is this different from the real world, where people commit crimes all the time?
This first trailer for the newest instalment in the horror/violence-fetish franchise asks the first two questions and absolutely ignores the third:
As far as I can tell, the main differences between The Forever Purge and real-life are that people are making far more elaborate deathtraps and that there’s a shockingly robust “super-creepy masks” industry. Here’s a snippet of the official synopsis: “This summer, all the rules are broken as a sect of lawless marauders decides that the annual Purge does not stop at daybreak and instead should never end in The Forever Purge. Vaulting from the record-shattering success of 2018’s The First Purge, Blumhouse’s infamous terror franchise hurtles into innovative new territory as members of an underground movement, no longer satisfied with one annual night of anarchy and murder, decide to overtake America through an unending campaign of mayhem and massacre. No one is safe.”
“Decide to overtake America through an unending campaign of mayhem and massacre?” Real original, Forever Purge. While it’s likely this film was written before January 6, it sure looks like it has something to say about trigger-happy agents of chaos and the middle-class taking revenge on the upper-class, but I don’t trust the movie to say anything cogent about either. But that’s just me. The Purge movies’ many fans should be delighted that the film was written and produced by the franchise’s long-time stewards, James DeMonaco and Jason Blum (respectively). The director is Everardo Gout, who has helmed episodes of The Terror, Luke Cage, and National Geographic’s Mars series, but this is his first movie.
The Forever Purge — starring stars Ana de la Reguera, Josh Lucas, Tenoch Huerta, Leven Rambin, Will Patton, and Cassidy Freeman — premieres in U.S. theatres on July 2. I’m sure it’ll be Purge-tastic.
Editor’s Note: Stay tuned for an Australian release date.