The Forever Purge

The Forever Purge

All the rules are broken as a sect of lawless marauders decides that the annual Purge does not stop at daybreak and instead should never end as they chase a group of immigrants who they want to punish because of their harsh historical past.

  • Released: 2021-06-30
  • Runtime: 103 minutes
  • Genre: Action, Horror, Thrillers
  • Stars: Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Josh Lucas, Leven Rambin, Cassidy Freeman, Alejandro Edda, Will Patton, Susie Abromeit, Anthony Molinari, Will Brittain, Sammi Rotibi, Mark Krenik, Gregory Zaragoza, Brett Edwards, Gary Nohealii, Jeffrey Doornbos, Edward Gelhaus, Keenan Henson, Erin Dinsmore, Baker Wiles, Kat Smith, Emily Trujillo, Yomary Cruz, Willow Beuoy, Patrick Zapata, Richard Allan Jones, Patricio Doren, Patrick Millin, Scott Douglas MacLachlan, Harrison Meloeny, Louie Novoa, Veronica Falcón, Joshua Dov, Richard Allan Jones, Patricio Doren, Willow Beuoy, Michael Aboujaoude, David Fencl, Zahn McClarnon, Carol Cantu, Dan Mast, Nedim Jahić
  • Director: Everardo Gout
 Comments
  • jimbo-53-186511 - 29 December 2022
    An unnecessarily elongated set-up, but pretty good once it gathers steam
    It's time for the annual purge again and those that have managed to survive until daybreak believe that their ordeal is once again over for the year. However, large groups of people from all across America don't want the purge to stop and continue to make unsanctioned killings. This film follows a small group of survivors as they make a break to the safe haven of the Mexican border...

    I disliked the first film, really enjoyed the second film and liked the third film. This fourth film is not quite as good as Anarchy and Election Year, but is a lot better than the first film.

    The first thing to address with this film lies with its pacing; the first 30 minutes are incredibly slow and whilst some of it exists as exposition to introduce the characters I felt that this could have been incorporated into the action scenes so as not to slow things down. Once the purging begins (after the official purge has ended) then it does noticeably improved. Like the second and third films there's plenty of action, plenty of killings (some of which are quite gory). The team here are OK, but they don't quite gel nor do they have the strong character chemistry that existed in some of the other films.

    Other problems exist in the film such as the idea that all US citizens can receive sanctuary if they can make it to the Mexican or Canadian border. This was good to see (particularly from the Mexican government) whom haven't always been on great terms with the US. The problem? Both governments say that they will be closing their borders in 6 hours. OK so how are people from say Florida supposed to reach either border in 6 hours? Let's assume air travel is out of the window it would take more than a day by car to reach either border from Florida; even some of the states across the central part of the US (Utah, Kansas, Colorado, Missouri would likely struggle to reach either border in 6 hours). Did DeMonaco simply forget how big the United States is as a country?

    Still this doesn't matter here as rather conveniently this purge is set in a part of Texas which isn't much more than a stones throw from the border. Some of the sequences involving our team getting to the border are quite intense and director Everardo Gout does a fairly good job overall; though his directing isn't quite as tight or claustrophobic as James DeMonaco's. The finale is fairly decent and I liked the way that the film tried to give a positive spin on relations between Mexicans and Americans by the film's end.

    Aside from a slow pace and some narrative implausibilities, Forever Purge is a good offering that greatly improves once day breaks, but it's fair to say it's a slightly lesser beast than some of its predecessors.
  • DoorsofDylan - 3 October 2022
    Purging forever.
    As October started to get near, I began to pick up Horror flicks to give as a spooky gift to a friend. Knowing that she enjoyed the other films in the series,I got the latest entry, and got ready to witness a new purge.

    View on the film:

    While continuing to lay the political commentary on with a trowel, and making all the events of The Purge: Election Year (2016-also reviewed) become irrelevant, with a hasty, barely explained, (no details giving to the background which led to The Purge returning) undoing of Election Year's wrapping the franchise up, the screenplay by returning writer James DeMonaco ties the sprawling chaos of The First Purge, with the on the run Action Horror from The Purge: Anarchy (2014 & 2018-both also reviewed.)

    The first Purge to take place In the day, (and to also have large parts of the dialogue spoken in Spanish) director Everardo Gout & cinematographer Luis David Sansans (backed by a grinding electronic score from The Newton Brothers) follow groups of Americans (refereed to as "Dreamers") trying to flee from the unfolding urban horror, by crossing the border to safety in Mexico, with excellent extended one-shot Steadicam and crane shots going up close to the groups running down the streets, which spiral out to sharp, gory hand-held shots striking the hard-hitting fighting set-pieces against those who want the purge to last forever.