As anyone familiar with the Purge franchise knows, every year, for a 12-hour period, all crime becomes legal. So once the Purge alarm goes off in cities across the United States in this universe, that’s your cue to lay low for the “holiday” or feel free to commit any malicious act that comes to mind. Well in real life, the police department in Crowley, Louisiana evidently decided to use this same distinctive alarm to announce a citywide curfew.
Social distancing and quarantining to help flatten the curve isn’t just a strong recommendation in some places. In a now-deleted Facebook post, the Crowley Police Department stated that its units would blare “an audible alarm,” which would be different from the “regular sirens,” to announce that the curfew was in effect, meaning that no one is allowed to leave their homes until 6 a.m. the following morning unless they have special employment documentation.
Well, needless to say that videos of the Purge alarm going off started spreading, and the internet latched onto it. First, listen to the alarm in action below, along with this Twitter user’s blunt opinion about it.
They certainly weren’t the only ones who felt the Crowley Police Department breaking out the Purge alarm was a bad idea, with this user saying:
Others found the use of the alarm humorous, albeit still bizarre.
After the Purge siren going off was met with mixed reception, Crowley Police chief Jimmy Broussard told KATC that he was unaware that the sound was associated with the action-horror franchise. Broussard also said that going forward, no type of siren will be used to announce the curfew.
Kicking off in 2013, the Blumhouse-produced and Universal Pictures-distributed Purge franchise is now four movies deep and also has a TV series airing on the USA Network. While the critical reception to the movies has primarily been mixed, so far all of them have done well for themselves commercially.
The most recent Purge movie, 2018’s The First Purge, wound the clock back to, as the title indicates, depict the origins of the Purge event. Rather than usher in the holiday across all of the United States at once, the first Purge was conducted only in Staten Island as an isolated experiment. Thus far, The First Purge is the highest-grossing Purge movie, collecting around $137 million worldwide off a $13 million budget.
A fifth Purge movie is on the way, with creator James DeMonaco saying back in 2018 that he planned to end the franchise with this installment. Everado Gout was tapped to direct last August, and the plan is for The Purge 5 (its official title still hasn’t been announced yet) to come out on July 10. However, just like so many other movies lately, it’s possible The Purge 5 will be delayed due to current events.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on the Purge franchise and whether that distinctive alarm rears its head in public elsewhere. For now, keep track of all the latest updates to the theatrical calendar with our handy guide.
