THE FIRST PURGE
* * ½
(Dark, violent prequel)
Before “The Purge” and “The Purge: Election Years” there was “The First Purge.” This violent, political prequel tells us how it all started.
The president supports a social scientist and a government official to set up a 12-hour time period on Staten Island where citizens can “let out their anger” by committing any crime, including murder, with no retaliation. The New Founding Fathers of the Future are backed by the NRA and are targeting a minority neighborhood that has already reached its boiling point.
The experiment appears to be failing as a resistance group attempts to explain to the neighborhood housing project what the government is trying to do to them. Any similarity to our current immigration and gun policies are quite evident.
The experiment turns bloody and violent when drug dealers get involved and turns to all-out war when mercenaries and the KKK show up in force. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who sent them.
The rest of the movie concentrates on how many people on both sides can be killed until our heroine and her drug dealing ex-boyfriend join forces to stop the bad guys.
Nya shouts out to her remaining minority neighbors, “It’s over...for now.” And we know it’s not.
Rated a big R, with lots of violence, drug use and profanity.