The Class's Killing Field
Purge night beckons across America as families rush home to barricade themselves in whilst those who want to kill and seek revenge hit the dangerous streets. For married couple Shane (Zach Gilford) and Liz (Kiele Sanchez) things don't bode well when heading home their car breaks down just as the Purge starts. Meanwhile Eva Sanchez (Carmen Ejogo) and her daughter Cali (Zoë Soul) find themselves a target of a kill squad forcing them to flee to the streets. It is there they along with Shane and Liz find themselves in the company of Sergeant (Frank Grillo) who has headed out to gain revenge on the man who killed his son in a driving incident but finds himself trying to get these strangers to safety.
On paper "The Purge: Anarchy" seems an incredibly simple movie where a group of strangers end up running the gauntlet of the streets on Purge night as they find themselves the target of some heavily armoured organized killers. And in fairness part of the movie is about this from avoiding amateur snipers who take to the rooftops for the sport of killing to various traps which are left on the streets. And as such whilst we don't necessarily get to know each of these people in this small group we do get just enough character to give their actions reasons and that is enough in some cases to grow to like them.
But there is more to "The Purge: Anarchy" than just this as there are some new ideas pushed forwards in this sequel. As such we get to see how those who are wealthy are using Purge Night to indulge their sick fantasies of killing but doing so in a playground which favours them. We also get thrown an idea that with less every day folk taking to the streets to kill the authorities are also using Purge Night as a way to keep down numbers whether they kill good guys or bad. There are more ideas and for what is an action movie "The Purge: Anarchy" does have a thought provoking side but never becoming heavy with it.
What helps bring all this together it the casting of Frank Grillo as Sergeant. Now I am not going to tell you that Grillo's performance is anything special but what he does is bring bad ass to the role but at the same time that level of decency which means whist he wants to kill it isn't unbelievable that he would help strangers in trouble.
What this all boils down to is that "The Purge: Anarchy" is not only entertaining if you are looking for a simple action/survival movie but it has a nice layer of depth to make it a little bit thought provoking at the same time.
