An image from the Forever Purge. Courtesy of Universal Picture
Reviews

The Forever Purge marks the end of the world as we know it

The Forever Purge (2021 | USA | 103 minutes | Everardo Gout)

A combination of halfhearted attempts to make a transient political statement about the nature of power and lackluster action that never takes hold, The Forever Purge is a fundamentally flawed attempt to reinvent the series. 

To be clear, reinvention is not necessarily a bad thing in theory, as it wouldn’t be the first time one of the films has challenged the limitations of its own world. The Purge series has evolved from a home invasion thriller to being far more expansive in scope. The most interesting thing the series did came in the 2018 prequel, The First Purge, which finally dismissed the psychoanalytic nonsense about how the annual Purge was created so that humanity could have a night to let out their violent tendencies in order to live peacefully throughout the year. What worked in that film was that it showed how the free-for-all was really all about reinstating control and targeting those who could be scapegoats for humanity’s simmering problems. It wasn’t perfect, but it offered some hints of greater aspirations. 

Those aspirations remain, though do not expect them to be met here. In what may be the final entry in the tumultuous franchise, The Forever Purge tries to challenge conceptions around immigration and who benefits from immigrant labor. Set against the backdrop of the upcoming yearly Purge, a night where all crime is legal, this installation stars Tenoch Huerta as Juan and Ana De la Reguera as Adela, a couple who come to Texas from Mexico. They are now working for a wealthy ranch owner with the most fitting name ever, Dylan Tucker (Josh Lucas). For those following the franchise, the Purge has been reinstated and the ritual has taken on its familiar beats. The vulnerable will hide, the wealthy will lounge in their mansions, and the night will pass with much bloodshed of those not able to escape. However, when the night ends and laws return to normal, Juan and Adela discover that a large group has decided to continue to Purge forever. If this is a spoiler, then the title itself is as well. The film then becomes about how they must unite with Tucker in order to survive. 

Tenoch Huerta as Juan in The Forever Purge. Courtesy of Universal Pictures
Tenoch Huerta as Juan in The Forever Purge. Courtesy of Universal Pictures

First and foremost, however much the film tries to be aware of the power dynamics of the relationship, it is incredibly weird how Tucker is positioned as being the bestower of approval. In particular, Juan’s arc in the story is mostly defined by getting approval from his white boss and convincing him that he shouldn’t be so racist. Juan does this by saving him over and over, creating a weird dynamic that toes dangerously close to the trope of him having to become a “good immigrant” in order to be given respect. The film seems unaware of how downright depressing it is to see Juan, an already kind man, constantly looking to Tucker as the barometer of if he is good enough in the world’s eyes. It happens to a disturbing degree. The film does expose Tucker’s outwardly racist ideas, though it often lets him off the hook far more than it ever should have. For anyone saying this is taking a Purge film too seriously, the story takes itself aggressively seriously in a manner that requires a review to engage with that seriousness on its own terms. 

With that in mind, the manner in which the events of the uprising come into play are deeply unsettling even as they are somewhat muddled. While we are thankfully still unlikely to see a coordinated attack on this scale, the idea of a takeover by a militant group of Americans committed to “cleansing” the country of any “impurities” is not that far out of left field. The biggest threat in the film is that of white supremicists who are hoping to expand the Purge to use it to take the country by force. That idea is not as unbelievable as one would hope, though in execution the film stumbles. This is despite brief glimpses of well-shot sequences that have an eye for creating memorable visual moments. The cast itself is all giving it their all and really keeping things grounded as they face visceral violence. It just can’t overcome the framing of the story itself. 

The first hint that an uprising is happening comes when the Texas ranch is taken over by a group who correctly see Tucker’s wealth as coming at their expense. While their grievances are founded on real systemic failures, don’t expect any coherent answers about how this group fits in, if at all, with the broader reactionary and racist elements that will later dominate the film. Despite introducing this class-based revolution, the film seems uninterested in providing any insights into what happened to create this splinter group. Instead, the story is about a journey to escape to Mexico in only a handful of hours before the border is closed, complete with brief exposition dumps offered through news broadcasts that feel shoehorned in and land with an awkward thud. The journey is clearly meant to be a twist of fate for the Americans who have to seek refuge from their neighbors at the Southern border, though it doesn’t explore this idea in any depth. 

Ana de la Reguera as Adela in The Forever Purge. Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Rather than embracing more thoughtful horror genre elements the film falls much more into the conventions of an action film. The scares, of which there are few, are premised on the same buildup and release of a scary guy suddenly jumping into frame. It is all about the initial shock and is akin to an amusement park ride. In fact, certain scenes actually felt like the characters were going through a scripted spectacle you would see at a stunt show. From a scene where the characters are momentarily attacked by bikers on the road to having to navigate through a warzone of a town, these scenes don’t feel well-constructed enough to create authentic engagement. It just becomes about the wild stuff going on around them and how the world is crumbling, losing sight of the characters at the core of it. 

Nowhere is this more clear than when, seemingly running out of steam, an antagonist is introduced for the characters to fight despite the film being more than halfway over. Rather than building such a character into the beginning of the story, the film drops him in the middle to give the characters something to deal with when the narrative runway runs out. It feels hackneyed and lackluster, making it all the worse that the film felt it needed to introduce a late villain in order to keep things moving. Don’t get me wrong, it is appropriately cathartic to see the group do battle with this new enemy by turning the tables on them through their own ingenuity. It just would have been more satisfying if the idea behind this foe was built into the foundations of the story. 

If this sounds harsh, it is only because a lot that could have been interesting gets lost in the shuffle. Multiple characters make abrupt exits from the film, including Adela’s caring boss, only to be replaced by characters who get similarly fleeting screen time. In particular, veteran actor Zahn McClarnon is given a role that is almost entirely confined to being a talking head on TV in the background until the script needs him. To not use such a good actor in a more impactful role feels emblematic of the film’s carelessness. Though that makes sense, as the entire film is defined by opportunities ripe with potential that never really go anywhere. It all makes for a letdown of an ending for a franchise that similarly had a lot of potential, but only barely scraped the surface. 

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

The Forever Purge is in theaters on July 2.