I have no clue why, but for some reason THE PURGE movies just click with people. Maybe it’s that people seem to be flocking to horror movies nowadays, or because people are intrigued by a society where murder is OK once a year. But, really, I think its because audiences are like, "a dude dressed like a rapist clown is butchering someone dressed as a pregnant Lady Liberty? Sign me up!" We’re kind of sick, aren’t we?
Anyway, whatever the reason for their success there will for sure be more coming as the third and newest film, THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR, made more at the box office than the second film, which made more than the first. As for what number four will be about, series helmer James DeMonaco mentioned a pretty good idea during an interview with Cinema Blend:
“I don't think I'll direct it. 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, 'Alright, 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 fuck 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. I don't think I'll direct, between you and I. You can print that, I mean. I'm thinking of maybe writing or at least producing it, to make sure it stays true to what I like about the movies.”
This quote comes along with another from DeMonaco wherein he talks about how THE PURGE will now branch out into a TV series, and how it’s much further along on the business end of things than we think:
“They're far ahead on the TV front… pretty far ahead. Not to get into the nuance of how it all goes down, we're talking about deals right now, money is being spoken about. Things like that. So I think it's being taken very seriously from the higher-ups who obviously dictate everything.”
As for why THE PURGE would make a great TV show:
“The idea of why I like the idea of a maybe 10 hour TV thing on this, the one thing you really can't do on the films is, just because of mere real estate and time, is you can't get into the nuance and complexity that would drive someone to commit a terrible act on this night. Whether it's revenge or out of passion, but what might be interesting in a TV show is with a flashback narrative, if you start on Purge Night but you go back to show how people have gotten to where they are. Where you see a couple that's gone haywire on this night, but let's show everything that's led up to this moment of a husband trying to kill a wife — the cheating or the accusations of cheating or money problems. It will be interesting to show those arcs, those dramatic and complex arcs that get people to where they pick up a gun or a knife and kill someone else. I think there's something cool that we can do with the real estate of TV — 10 hours, potentially.”
Though the movies have so far proven pretty forgettable to me, this notion of tracing the series back to how our society decided why this whole all-crime-is-legal-for-one-day thing was a good idea is, well, a good idea. The series has tried to act almost like a forecast of our society, showing us where it's heading, so maybe going back to see how we came to the idea of a Purge Night may prove very reflective and enlightening for audiences. You know, on top of being gory as all hell.
As for the TV show, I just talked about this whole goddamn business yesterday. THE PURGE now joins the ranks of ITALIAN JOB, BEHIND ENEMY LINES, and other titles I don’t care to type out in all caps as a movie series that will now be a TV series. Now I could mock all day, but I’m not feeling as cynical today because LUKE CAGE is now on Netflix. So I will say THE PURGE TV show, at least based on DeMonaco’s idea, sounds vastly more interesting than the films, as it will dig into the psychology of people on Purge Night. I mean, I like blood and guts as much as anyone, but sometimes I like a little philosophy with my disembowelment.
You can buy THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR on Blu-ray and DVD on October 4.