It’s day 18 kiddies, and up today for our horror fest is the timely 2016 film The Purge: Election Year. Set two years after the events in The Purge: Anarchy, former police sergeant Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) has now become head of security for US Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell). Roan is running for President and vowing to eliminate the Purge night, while her opponent, Minister Edwidge Owens (Kyle Secor), has the backing of the NFFA (New Founding Fathers of America) and is very much pro-Purge. A betrayal lands Barnes and the senator out on the street during Purge night, and they work to survive, getting the help of a shopkeeper (Mykelti Williamson) and an anti-NFFA leader. The trick is living through the night so the senator can complete her run for President. 8/10
Like the best horror and science-fiction movies, The Purge: Election Year seeks to mirror real life events and politics. The film released in July during the contentious 2016 Presidential Election, and sought to equate the NFFA with the Republican Party and their policies towards the poor, while Roan obviously was the Democrat stand-in. Two years later, we’re now approaching the mid-term elections, and this film seems even more timely, considering the current policies of the Trump administration. Politics aside, the film works well as an action horror flick, with Grillo (The Purge: Anarchy, Captain America: Civil War) making for a suitable action hero. Mitchell (The Expanse) fares well as the idealistic senator, trying to maintain the ethical high road in the face of betrayal. Williamson (Heat, Chicago P.D.) provides some the film’s best humorous lines, and Secor (Veronica Mars) makes for a suitably slimy villain. If you enjoy the series, you’re bound to enjoy this one as well. Available on Blu-ray/DVD.
