The Purge may not be the scariest, but it's not just a thriller. Its Horror.

As a kid, I was always the type to watch horror movies only to regret the decision soon after but how I would still time and time again watch them. Thinking back, I always knew deep down that I didn't like them, but that there was something about them that drew me in. My mom however, wasn't the same way. She would always question, much like Carroll, why anyone would want to watch, much less pay for, something that scared you. And in her defense, I never could answer the question, but Carroll's argument to a degree did. I agreed with many of her points and did question others, but I can't deny that her explanation helped me understand and recognize just why people were fascinated with movies like The Purge. Admittedly, when I first saw The Purge, it didn't scare me quite as much as other movies did, and at a point I wondered whether it really belonged in the horror genre. However, after reviewing Carroll's theory, it's hard to deny its rightful place within the art-horror genre. What made that most apparent to me was the fact that like Carroll described, it was disturbing but fascinating and a part of me had to know more and how it ends. So while the idea behind The Purge, it's focus on a world where all crime is legal for a day, may not seem particularly horrifying it is at the very least intriguing. Everyone at one point wonders, what if? And it's that initial interest, that draws people in and our curiosity about what people will do that we want to find out. It's the way that they do disclose information slowly that makes you want to know the outcome. Which I think is exactly why they begin the movie very slowly introducing the family, giving you background on what The Purge is and how dangerous it can be. This way you felt how the family felt, which was worried but for the most part safe. Much like the experience described by watching tragedies, the audience can be manipulated to an extent that they're in the situation, but in the end they know its not real. In the way that people remind themselves that it's just a show, and it's special effects and just a story. Which is why they can be fascinated by it, like Carroll says. It's this point, this awareness that it was fiction, that I was able to watch the grotesque murders and admit to myself that I wanted to see everything that they were going to do. But, in the same situation, I couldn't watch the murders of real people that were posted publicly on Facebook. Even though, it was something you watched and weren't experiencing yourself, the fear you felt watching a real person die was much more personal than when you watch it in a movie. And also with the movie, you want to believe that the people committing these acts were categorical violations. It made you want to think that those people were sick and sadistic for doing what they did, and it was impossible for you to think about how anyone in their right mind could ever do it, much less enjoy it. But, in the end showing the audience that given opportunity and no consequence, anyone could do it. It's all of this, that did in fact categorize The Purge as horror rather than suspense or thriller. It was the fact that it didn't just pull you in with the plot, but that murder, limitations of the human morality, betrayal, no consequences, these things are fears and they are disturbing. But leaves you with these questions that you need to have answered. What if there were no laws? What if people just acted without consequence? What's the worst that could happen? The Purge is simply the horrifying answer to all of it.