Over the years, The Purge has established itself as a horror franchise we can expect to see come back again and again to the big screen. But the series centering on a single day set aside for violence and chaos has been met with varying degrees of quality. The latest entry The Forever Purge is the fifth movie from the series and following its release over the weekend, fans have a lot of thoughts about the new angle the franchise took with this summer release.
On the critic front, the reception for The Forever Purge was pretty mixed, with CinemaBlend’s own review by Eric Eisenberg leaning toward the positive side of things, calling it “one of the best Purge movies yet.” From the audience’s side of things, there’s a nice amount of good energy surrounding the release on social media. Let’s get into what fans are saying about The Forever Purge:
The Social Commentary In The Forever Purge Struck A Chord
The concept for The Purge is actually derived from a Star Trek episode from 1967 called “The Return of the Archons,” where the Enterprise comes around a planet where its inhabitants enjoy a night of violence each year. Across its breadth of movies, the concept has been explored first in a wealthy neighborhood with the first movie and since expanded to take place during an election year and through 2018’s prequel about the first Purge.
The Forever Purge has the violent event being reinstated by the New Founding Fathers of America and the storyline shifts its focus to a migrant couple who travel from Mexico to Texas while fleeing from a drug cartel. When the Purge reaches their doorstep, the movie deals with undercurrents of white supremacy as the purgers seek to purify those they consider to be non-American. As one fan shared:
Part of why we love horror is how the genre can explore our real fears in an entertaining way. And for many fans of the franchise, The Forever Purge did its job of scaring in a visceral way. As the above fan found some of the events of the movie could really happen, another found its social commentary to be a major highlight of the latest Purge movie:
Each of the movies have used another location to tell a Purge story, and The Forever Purge has a more rural American setting that spoke to fans of the series. Here’s another reaction:
The Purge franchise has told a lot of story thus far, but it’s great to see its concept can still be redefined in a way that speaks to its audience. You wouldn’t exactly expect the fifth movie of a horror franchise to offer such a deep narrative, but it left fans pleasantly surprised:
Alongside the impressive social commentary being explored, the setting of The Forever Purge also lent well to fans seeing themselves on screen, which we’ll talk about next.
Forever Purge Fans Rallied Behind The Mexican And Native American Representation
The Forever Purge is the first Purge movie to be directed by Everado Gout, a Mexican filmmaker that previously helmed National Geographic’s Mars series. By opening the door for a new director, the movie included a number of Mexican and Native American characters that fans appreciated seeing on the big screen. As one fan noted:
The movie is led by two Mexican immigrants portrayed by Ana de la Reguera and Tenoch Huerta, who are relatively new actors that have not had the chance to lead a Hollywood film before this. Along with their key roles, audiences were also proud to see Native American actors be part of the narrative as well. It lends itself well to the story at hand. In one fans words:
It’s very rare to see people from the American indigenous population included in a major film like The Purge franchise, and fans took notice. Here’s another fan sounding off about The Forever Purge’s representation:
A great message and diversity is all well and good, but when fans walk into a Purge movie, they are expecting scares and a good time. Let’s end this roundup with fan thoughts on the movie overall.
The Forever Purge Is An Instant Purge Favorite
Though it certainly can be noted that The Forever Purge has its silent minority that may have been too disappointed to post on social media, many people who posted about the movie after seeing it had great things to say about the horror movie. Many people touted the summer release as their favorite movie in the Purge franchise, such as this moviegoer:
As the fan shared, The Forever Purge was a good mix of being silly and scary, which is exactly what he was looking for from the movie. Another moviegoer did not think much of the movie when they went out to see it, but once the credits rolled, they very happy with their experience:
The love was extended to another fan who called The Forever Purge an “easy recommendation” to fellow horror fans. As they tweeted:
Based on social media fan reactions, it sounds like there are a lot of aspects of the movie to love. Although the movie was initially expected to be the last in the franchise, Jason Blum did tell CinemaBlend that he’s hoping to make more Purge films despite the series’ creator and writer James DeMonaco previously calling the movie the last of the Purge. One fan would especially be excited for more after The Forever Purge:
There’s a lot of great buzz from fans about The Forever Purge, but what did you think? Vote in our poll below and stay tuned for more horror with our list of upcoming movies from the genre.
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