Just remember all the good the purge does... or so you think.

Look to the future for a moment. What do you think it will be like? Will we have flying cars or some instant transportation devices? Will there be no more war? Or will we be purging our friends and families to get rid of the anger and aggression that builds up inside us? That’s what The Purge is all about. Every day is normal, except for March 21^st, the day of the annual purge.

 

The Purge is not your usual horror movie. There are no monsters or masked figures (well there are, we know they’re just humans though), but this movie will make you think. Do we really want a future where once a year, we can kill anyone we want? The elderly, sickly, homeless, and children included. Anyone and everything goes in this future. The problem is, in this time that we’re in right now, people will actually consider this as being something we should do. This is a fiction film that could possibly become a reality.

 

Let’s take a step back for a moment though and talk about “The Paradox of Horror.” Carroll makes the point that people are drawn to the repulsive and disgusting aspects of horror films because they know these things aren’t true. It’s all make-believe. There’s an attractiveness to the intense repulsiveness of some of the films we see today. That’s what makes this paradox so true. However, in the case of The Purge, though the death and killing might be repulsive, I think people are attracted to the idea of being able to kill whenever they want rather than the fact that they aren’t part of what’s happening. In my case, I’m happy that this isn’t really happening today.

 

Carroll goes on to discuss H.P. Lovecraft and his idea of “cosmic horror,” “Cosmic fear for Lovecraft is an exhilarating mixture of fear, moral revulsion, and wonder” (p. 162). This has to do with supernatural horror. Now, The Purge isn’t exactly supernatural, but we can draw a comparison with the feelings we had, well at least I had, while watching this movie. Fear for the people who were being chased in this move. Moral revulsion at the sheer fact that people could kill each other the way they do in this movie. The wonder felt at how they even came up with this idea in the first place. I believe The Purge, if watched by certain people, could be a possibility in our future. I hope not in my lifetime, if at all.