Well no prizes for guessing what I was watching today readers. Yes it was the next film in the Purge franchise albeit, a prequel “The first Purge”. Sky Movies gave it quite a low rating, only 1.5 out of 5 but I liked it much better than that, maybe a 3 out of 5.
For those new to the “Purge” franchise, the concept is that once every year in a dystopian United States, you will not be criminally liable for any murder or other criminal activity you commit during a twelve hour period. There are no police during this time. The idea is that psychologically you get to act out during this period and so will be fine for the rest of the year.
On the plus side it reduces crime for the rest of the year and there is lower unemployment. On the negative side it turns out to be more about social cleansing and getting rid of the poor/black/brown people.
The racial aspect is most obvious in the latest instalment and it is made abundantly clear that african americans are being targeted. In fact there are no moral/good/likeable white people in this film, which is fine with me.
The main hero is a leader of one of the drug gangs who decides to protect his community. This I’m not so sure about, why does he bother when he’s peddling poison to the community the rest of the time? Is it because they are white aggressors?
The purgers have their masks and the film does have its usual ghoulish quality so I’m definitely glad I saw it.
Still working away on “The Irish Ripper”. 14,000 words done. Parts of it are hard to write and it’s hard to know if it’s just too violent. Hopefully I’ll manage to strike the right balance.
To all my readers, remember my novels “Chronicles of Martan”, “Not the Usual Suspect” and “Paradigm” are all available on the Amazon website.
Mark's Writing Corner 