One of the most exciting and original modern horror movie franchises is the Purge films. Stepping away from both the torture porn genre and supernatural thrillers, the Purge series is set in a much more realistic and human atmosphere. Morality is explored while still being full of jump scares and tension, and with characters who seem like they could function in reality. Now it turns out that the realistic nature of The Purge is even more present in the third film, The Purge: Election Year, where it seems that art truly imitated life.
In a recent interview with Comicbook.com, actor Frank Grillo, who will be reprising his role from The Purge: Anarchy in the third film, opened up regarding how real life politics influenced the movie. Namely: Presidential hopeful Donald Trump unwittingly informed the title of the movie.
In the beginning when we shot the movie it wasn't called Purge: Election Year. Oddly enough, the guy who plays the President in the movie, he plays him like Trump - totally by accident. There's a lot of parallels between the GOP race and the movie and the messages that are being put forward and then Universal got this great idea to call it Purge: Election Year.
Wowza. This a pretty substantial change. It seems that Donald Trump’s whirlwind political journey this year has now reached every form of media. Whether he cares about the movie or not.
The correlation between The Purge: Election Year and Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign has been rather obvious thus far. A recent teaser for Election Year was filmed as a faux political TV spot, encouraging the American people to go out and get their murder on during Purge day. Elderly citizens, cute kids, and successful looking couples all creepily proclaim that they purge every year, before the text “keep America great” flashes across the screen.
Obviously, this is a jab at Donald Trump’s slogan “make America great again”. While I think we can all be fairly confident that Donald Trump isn’t intending on legalizing murder once a year, it seems to be clear that the folks behind Election Year’s marketing campaign must not be fans of the Republican front runner.
The Purge: Election Year isn’t the only upcoming summer blockbuster that will feature a character who was played with a President hopeful in mind. Actress Sela Ward, who will play the first female President in the upcoming apocalyptic romp Independence Day: Resurgence, recently revealed that she modeled the physicality and vocal mannerisms of the POTUS after none other than Hillary Clinton. With the upcoming Presidential Election at the front of everyone’s minds, it’s clear that actors playing politicians are looking to the current political climate in order to embody their characters.
What do you think of the influence Donald Trump’s political campaign has had on The Purge: Election Year? Are they going too far with their comparisons to the front runner? Sound off in the comments below.
The Purge: Election Year will hit theaters July 1st, 2016.
