The Purge has evolved from a low-budget home invasion horror into a politically charged
survival franchise over the course of its three installments so far, but before this
vision of a dystopian hellscape began to have such scary similarities to current events,
there were some real-life tragedies that inspired the movie -- and some scary events that followed
the films as well to make it a full circle experience.
"Thank you for your sacrifice."
Here's the untold truth of The Purge.
Wicked history
The first question on most people's minds after watching a Purge movie is "what would
happen if they really did that?"
And the answer is, well, they kinda did.
Roman Pagans used to celebrate a festival called Saturnalia, which was a week-long period
of lawlessness that allowed citizens to go crazy and get out all their pent-up aggressions
without fear of retribution right before Christmas.
Of course, there were winners and losers in this open season approach to crime, and the
whole purpose was to show the masses what life would be like without the rule of law,
but still.
Those Romans were crazy.
The aftermath
Unfortunately the real-life parallels between The Purge and society don't stop there.
In May 2016, an Indiana teen was arrested for kidnapping a woman at a fast food restaurant,
and he was then connected to a string of murders over a three-day spree that he referred to
as a nightly purge.
"Mr. Cruise went on a four day one man purge."
Futile resistance
When writer-director James DeMonaco first came up with the idea for The Purge, he decided
to run it by his dad, who just so happened to remember something similar happening on
a Star Trek episode with a similar premise.
In the original series, Kirk and Spock are trying to help a planet whose people are dictated
by an artificially intelligent authoritarian computer system, and they're shocked to find
out that every day at 6 p.m., "the Red Hour," the computer shuts down and people are free
to go nuts with all of their wicked ways.
It's situations like this when that old phrase comes in handy…
"Beam me aboard."
Personal rage
When you consider the high levels of bloodshed needed to bring his dark vision for America
to the big screen, it might seem odd that DeMonaco has a fear of firearms, but the gun
violence that seems to grip the US every other week was actually one of the reasons he wanted
to make the Purge films.
The Brooklyn-born filmmaker found himself gripped by the news coverage every time a
story about a shooting was on, finally coming to the realization that traditional villains
have become far less scary than the random man on the street.
His firearm phobia wouldn't begin to develop into an idea for a feature film until he found
himself in a violent road rage incident.
DeMonaco revealed that he once became involved in a fight with another motorist after the
driver in question almost killed the director and his wife while drunk behind the wheel.
DeMonaco reportedly wrestled the man to the ground while police were on their way, and
something his wife said after the fracas became the root of the idea behind Purging as a concept.
DeMonaco recalled:
"This guy had been so idiotic about the whole thing.
He was being a real jerk.
And she was raging.
We were both raging, we were on fire.
And then she turns to me and says: 'Wouldn't it be great if we could have one free one
a year?'
I knew exactly what she meant.
And I said, 'Wow, honey.
That's a bold statement!'
But it stayed with me."
Close call
Scenestealer Rhys Wakefield was cast in The Purge just one day before shooting began.
His character, known as the Polite Leader, was arguably one of the most visually arresting
aspects of the movie, but it was a happy accident that the right guy got the role.
The Australian actor was chosen for the part during an all-night casting call held out
of desperation the night before production launched, and luckily, Wakefield's sly confidence
was just the right level of creepy to match the role of leading a group that was inspired
by DeMonaco's fascination with the Manson family murderers.
Wedded bliss
Shane and Liz from The Purge: Anarchy are actually married in real life.
The actors, Zach Gilford and Kiele Sanchez, auditioned to star as the on-screen couple
and boasted an authentic built-in connection based on their real-life relationship.
They'd been together since 2010, when they met on the set of a failed TV pilot, and had
been together for four years before sharing the screen again in the second Purge flick.
Trump dumps
The third installment to the franchise, 2016's The Purge: Election Year took a different
approach, keeping the traditional horror elements but blending in some political thriller aspects.
According to DeMonaco, the plot was inspired by the 2016 race for the White House—if
not directly then certainly subconsciously.
DeMonaco admitted that "drips" of what was happening in the debates made it through to
him as he was penning the screenplay, though he refused to say which characters represent
which real-life politicians...in some cases, it was pretty obvious.
Next up
The Purge 3 was originally expected to arrive as a prequel and go back to the night of the
first purge to explain the origins of the New Founding Fathers, and now that a fourth
film is underway, that's the direction the next installment may take.
As DeMonaco told Cinema Blend:
"I would actually go back and I would try to talk about how it all started.
That seems the natural next chapter in this, is to say, 'All right, we've done this trilogy.
We see how it got to this point of someone trying to end it, this presidential figure.
Now let's go back and see how the f— all this came about.'
How did this country get to a place where we were now accepting this kind of atrocity,
this terrible thing, each year?
I think there's something interesting in that."
There's also a Purge TV show on the way, which will showcase the gore and grit of different
purge night experiences and what drives ordinary people to get to the point of participating
in such murder and mayhem in the first place … you know aside from those ridiculous commercials.
"I purge because staying in is unamerican."
"Don't let your freedoms get taken away."
Hey, maybe it'll be a good cautionary tale for current times …
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