10 Horror Movies Everyone Wished Were Way Crazier
3. The Purge
When it comes to an interesting premise without any follow through, The Purge series has to be one of the biggest mainstream examples.
The world of the franchise is pretty well-known by this point; it's set in a landscape where all crime is legal for a 12-hour period each year. This opens up plenty of potential for commentary on society, the rule of law, and human nature itself.
Does any of this get explored? No, not really.
Let's examine the first film to find out what went wrong. Its central characters are the Sandin family, a well-off bunch who prepare for the night of chaos by locking themselves in their home.
The obvious thing to do with them would be to put them out on the streets where all the violence is, but the movie makes the absolutely baffling choice of having the murderous gangs come to them.
This makes it just another home invasion feature, which happens all the time in worlds where crime isn't legal. It's not until the series' second movie that the full extent of the Purge concept is explored, and even that didn't do it justice.
That's the biggest crime of all.