The Damned does all it can to make witches scary once again, but flashes of inept acting and tonal fumbles spoil what could have been a horrifying feast of riches.
Now that you've seen The Purge: Anarchy (if you haven't, minor spoilers will follow), it's time to discuss where in the hell this crazy ride can go next. Honestly, the options are limitless - James DeMonaco has created a universe that can be revisited yearly, essentially becoming the next Saw franchise. This, of course, is music to the ears of producers, as The Purge was only created on a budget of $2.7 million - and Anarchy wasn't that much more of a splurge. Imagine a yearly Purge visitation that only expanded a world full of anarchy, chaos, and destruction beyond our wildest dreams.
Four Year Strong have steadily asserted themselves as one of the stronger bands around the alternative rock/pop-punk scene, and even though I completely dug In Some Way, Shape, Or Form, many thought the band was losing their edge - falling into a state of hard-rocking normalcy. This all coincided with the departure of Josh Lyford (synthesizers) and rumors of the band's sudden breakup, but here we are about a year later and the remaining members are back and better than ever with their new EP Go Down In History.
When a filmmaker is able to successfully translate reality to screen, something special happens. Happy Christmas is that uniquely special "something," as Swanberg's grounded style of filmmaking has never been sharper.
My press day for The Purge: Anarchy was quite the whirlwind, between announcing Frank Grillo's involvement in Partick Hughes' The Raid: Redemption remake to finding out where Michael K. Williams says The Purge 3 will most likely go, but I'm not done there! James DeMonaco, writer/director on the most recent Purge film, will obviously be courted for a third film in the franchise if Anarchy is lucrative enough, but that doesn't mean another night of chaos is on DeMonaco's radar next. Sorry, I should say "another night of purge-based chaos" in that respect.
Let me be realistic for a second here and make sure we're all on the same page - The Purge 3 has not been confirmed. We still have to see how The Purge: Anarchy does at the box office, because the sequel's performance could make or break any future franchise entries, but that doesn't mean that people aren't already talking. James DeMonaco has created a formula that can be re-visited each year, and if the dollar signs are right, you better believe producers are going to start churning these things out like Saw movies - which isn't a bad thing if the ideas are there.
I give James DeMonaco a ton of credit, because when I first heard about The Purge, I shrugged off the idea as another mainstream horror blunder waiting to happen. The government pardons all laws for a night full of murder, bloodshed, and every other despicable act in the book, and innocents get caught in the fray? Yeah, well, here I am a year later, eating my words while being genuinely excited for its sequel, The Purge: Anarchy. Funny how life works out, but The Purge really broke open the home invasion genre in ways that gave me a serious case of the willies, and now DeMonaco will swing for the fences by taking us into the eye of the Purge - hope you brought your killin' boots.
While The Purge: Anarchy feels like an introduction to something greater, Grillo's old-school action lead kicks ass and takes names - just how we like it.
On a scale of "Kim Kardashian" to "Fred Durst," Sex Tape clocks in at a "Tila Tequila" - meaning, despite being a trashy mess, we still can't peel our eyes away for some reason.
Aftermath cleverly finds horror in the most obvious of places, hidden plainly on the faces of every American with an existing paranoia of nuclear warfare.