"The Purge: Election Year" Is the Worst Movie of 2016

The Purge: Election Year (2016)

It's been said that the worst thing a book can be is boring. Every word, every sentence, and every paragraph of a novel must serve some sort of purpose and never leave the reader bored. I believe that this theory applies to film as well, and unfortunately, The Purge: Election Year is mind-numbingly boring from start to finish. Despite the fact that it rarely lapses into scenes where nothing happens it's difficult to feel anything for any of the characters on screen or to care when the fourth action sequence rolls around. The novelty of the idea from the first film, which introduces the concept of one day where all crime is legal, has worn off by now and is instead muddled by an attempt at introducing politics to the Purge universe. Our hero is a politician who is determined to put an end to the purge after witnessing the murder of her family when she was young one purge night, for some reason the notion of a politician putting an end to a night where people can be murdered or sexually assaulted with no hope of justice doesn't sit well with the public or other politicians, even though the film's premise has been called absolutely ridiculous since the first release in the trilogy.

Politics and horror rarely mix, and if they were to mix it would have to be done by a far more capable pair of writer and director than the people behind The Purge: Election Year. Some vague efforts at claiming that the purge night only exists to help the rich stay richer and kill off the poor are made, but these broad statements are flimsy when the film fails to elaborate further aside from some quick shots of homeless people being brutalized by bratty rich children. This film somehow attempts to be both profound and edgy, which is a combination which rarely ever works. It fills its characters mouths with more profanity than any human being would use in their daily lives (and I assure you, based on past films I've raved excitedly about, I'm hardly a prude - this is just terribly written dialogue) and dresses young women in tight fitting revealing outfits to emphasize how evil they are, yet also makes broad statements about society failing to help the poor and instead secretly wishing there was a single night where it was legal to beat homeless people to death.

My next complaint regarding The Purge: Election Year is the fact that there is not a single scary instance in the entire film. Jump scares are startling, not scary, and while the film does offer some of those it offers nothing else deeper in terms of scares. Perhaps the one redeemable sequence in the film is a secret underground political meeting which was vaguely reminiscent of Kevin Smith's Red State which is a fantastic example of a film being both horrifying and political without straying too far into being a preachy mess. Unfortunately, The Purge: Election Year is simply boring, even with all its explosions, quick cuts, shaky cameras, and loud rock music. If you haven't seen it yet, don't bother, it's not worth your time or the energy which will be drained from you after watching yet another terrible performance from an actress trapped in an awful horror franchise.