10 Horror Movies That Abandoned Awesome Ideas Halfway Through
5. The Purge
Depicting an alternate version of reality where civilization annually repeals all laws for one night of barbaric lawlessness, The Purge's juicy premise and enthralling dystopian universe was practically begging for an in-depth examination.
About that.
In absolutely maddening fashion, fright fans swiftly discovered that once the scene had finished being set across the first act of the film, what was to follow was little more than contrived action-horror crap. Despite masquerading as a cutting form of social commentary, James DeMonaco's picture proved to be just another home invasion flick stuffed with the usual tropes, with little to separate it from its peers but an array of totally unnecessary masks.
It doesn't help that the original outing only focuses on one household across the course of the movie, shrinking the scope for fleshing out this thrilling world with more substance even further. There's ultimately no real exploration of the themes that the movie's premise appeared to promise; socio-economic circumstances, political motivation or manners of exploitation for the chaos that Purge Night brings with it number as but a few of the issues that this bore of a bloodbath fails to tackle adequately.
While The Purge's first half hinted at a scathing critique of the world we live in, DeMonaco's originality and directive technique is usually the only thing being criticized by the time the credits roll.