Today is just a weird day. I’ve watched three movies, none of which are supposed to be good… and yet I’ve liked (or loved) all three. The latest is, inexplicably, The Forever Purge… the FIFTH movie in an uneven bit of exploitation junk horror/thrillers. I really enjoyed this film and consider it the best in the Purge franchise (not really a high bar but not one I expected this deep into the series).

The Forever Purge once again posits an America where all crime is legal for 12 hours one night a year. But unlike the previous films, this Purge night ends within 20 minutes or so of the film’s beginning… and then then it continues. It seems the Purgers have a plan the rest of us weren’t aware of.

The Purge series has always been political, the purge being a metaphor for this or that social ill. This one is perhaps the most political of them all. And, amusingly, it opens with some narration saying the Purge was ended (in a previous film) but the political party responsible for it was re-elected and they promptly reinstated it. This, on a movie sequel level, is kind of a cheap and easy excuse to continue with yet more sequels… but somehow it’s completely apt for the political warning this movie wants to make. Better watch out because thugs can come back into power as soon as you aren’t looking.

What I loved about this film is that the convenient rules of the Purge are finally tossed out. The inmates that run the asylum for 12 hours? They don’t want to cede the power back. And the film is finally able to reach the anarchy and madness the series has long promised but never quite (in my book) delivered.

When I realized this purge was going to go on after sunrise and then chaos breaks out and nobody knows what to do, I felt it viscerally in my gut. And I should never feel anything visceral in a Purge movie… been trained for that this whole series. And yet THIS sequel knows how to depict social collapse and the fear – the terror – that would entail. Cities on fire, tanks rolling down streets, dogs and cats living together. I really enjoyed this film’s ability to actually be the horror thriller that it’s always promised.

That said, I will argue the movie was far too murky at times (though a lot of the action, for the first time in the series, does take place during the day) and the final action scene is too chaotic with a herky jerky camera that made it hard to follow and see who was living and who was dying. But up to that point, the movie was really working, including a very impressive single shot sequence through an El Paso on fire.

I was thoroughly engrossed – inexplicably – by this fifth Purge film. It nails what it sets out to achieve and I’d argue finally lives up to the thesis of the series. I’m probably dead wrong though because why would this be a good movie? I suspect nobody will agree and I’ll be out here alone wondering what movie I saw…

Score: 88