Ranking Every ‘The Purge’ Movie

£4.99 for all five The Purge movies on Amazon? Sure, I’ll go for that. I hadn’t seen any of the films before that deal popped up and now, after watching them all over the course of the last week, I’m a fan. It’s more than just ticking another horror franchise (although it’s debatable whether they are horror films after the first) off the list: I ended up genuinely enjoying them. Well, four out of the five.

I only knew the core concept before watching: a fascistic US government allows one night a year where all crime, including murder, is legal. Carnage ensues. The Purge is a title with a dual meaning: to purge anger and emotions and also to purge undesirables from the United States. The films are unapologetically political, highlighting and exaggerating the divisiveness of the modern political climate. They are also unapologetically unsubtle, taking as much joy in the blunt force approach as many of the killers the series features, and that’s fine because it has fun with it.

I did contemplate watching the two seasons of The Purge tv series to make this a totally complete list but the franchise works as ninety-minute movies. I don’t think I can handle it for 20 hours. I also thought of being cute and including the Star Trek episode Return of the Archons, which inspired the franchise, but then I’d have to include that Rick & Morty episode and it’d just be never ending. This isn’t a place to start getting clever; this is a ranking of The Purge movies, from small home invasion beginnings to concept-destroying action finales.

5) The First Purge (2018)

The concept of a prequel showing the origins of the Purge sounds like a neat idea. In practice, it’s not. Despite being the first, it feels the most tired and familiar. In all the ways that matter it doesn’t set itself apart from the previous films, the formula followed too closely yet again. The only differences are minor visual changes, like everyone wearing bright contact lenses, nothing significant.

It’s perhaps the least subtle Purge movie, which is saying something, and crucially the least fun. It takes itself a little too seriously. There are some interesting aspects, like paying people to stay on the island and participate, manipulating the poor masses in a predominately non-white neighbour, bringing in mercenaries to prove the Purge has been a success. But we have seen this before. Given it is an origin story, I’d have liked to see people who genuinely care about the Purge, people who thought it was a good idea only to be shocked by the actual event. The only villains of the movie are deceptive government officials and totally crazy people, nobody in the middle.

The worst part is Marisa Tomei’s bizarre role as ‘The Architect’, the psychologist who came up with The Purge. It sounds like an intriguing role but is presented as a clear afterthought, Tomei shot against some of the worst greenscreens I’ve ever seen, looking at monitors and saying nonsense before being killed herself using an obvious body double. It’s a terrible performance. Overall, it’s the worst-acted Purge movie, especially the lead villain Skeletor, who is supposed to be scary but is so cringe-inducing.

Highlighting the issue further is that the third act hints at a better film than the one we received. The best part is contained to a tower block and it’s clear the entire film should have been smaller scale, helping it feel different from the previous two city-set movies, and set entirely in a tower block. That should have been the testing ground for the Purge. It’s also the film where the franchise has an identity crisis, stuck too far into an action movie realm when it doesn’t feel natural. Without Frank Grillo’s character, there being badass action sequences, like oner staircase fight scenes and people doing gun-fu, doesn’t work.

4) The Purge (2013)

The contained nature of the first film is both the best and worst thing about it. It’s a soft, budget-friendly introduction to the franchise. It makes it clear that the Purge is a great movie concept but it can’t do it justice as a home invasion thriller. The reason for attacking the house is interesting but once it gets going it could be any decently produced home invasion movie.

I do like the focus on the privileged, wealthy family who have gotten rich on the back of the Purge and now face a reckoning. The family dynamic is interesting, apart from the daughter and her boyfriend, far and away the worst part of the movie, including the clear Michael Bay influence of upskirt shots of a schoolgirl. Otherwise the good lead actors help elevate the material.

The first half of the movie is great, the second is fine. When it sparks into action it’s fun but ludicrous that someone can have a shotgun fight in one room of the house and nobody in any other rooms can hear it. It’s well shot, with an effective use of darkness, scenes lit by flashlight, even if there’s about ten minutes of too much walking around a dark house to help delay the finale and get the movie to a feature length 80 minutes. A solid, small introduction to The Purge that doesn’t fully capitalise on the concept.

3) The Purge: Anarchy (2014)

Now this is a Purge movie. Anarchy is the Escape from New York to the first film’s Assault on Precinct 13. The original is fine but this is the type of movie the concept was made for, with the sequel now having the budget to deliver. An expansive, city-spanning thriller with a good balance of both horror and action. The franchise finds its best protagonist in Frank Grillo’s unnamed badass, out for revenge but getting tangled up saving others caught out on Purge night.

It expands not just in scale but also by offering new angles on the concept. It’s not all raving lunatics: some people use it as an excuse for vigilante justice, others fight back against the system, others sacrifice themselves for money to help their families. The film works as a series of vignettes, an odyssey across the city, bumping into quirky characters, the best being the core group being kidnapped and released in a warehouse to be hunted while the rich watch on.

So why is it only my third favourite rather than taking the number one spot like many would rank it? The dialogue is abysmal. That’s an issue for the whole franchise but partilcaury this film. Grillo apparently cut most of his dialogue, which was the right call, but more could and should have gone. The constant use of ‘purge’ as a verb (“I’m gonna purge”, “You purging?”) drove me insane. As long as people aren’t saying anything, the film’s good. The movie also focuses on three parties coming together to form one group: Grillo (great), a mother and daughter (fine), and a couple (absolutely insufferable). The couple weren’t needed at all.

2) The Forever Purge (2021)

I seem to be the only person who likes The Forever Purge. And I really like it. At first I was disappointed it undoes the ending of Election Year (you should be able to work out where that film ranks by now) and while it is narratively disappointing that film changes nothing it is probably realistic after Trump’s re-election. As with The First Purge, the film is obvious with its political messaging, focusing on Mexican immigrants in Mexico, but what makes it work here when the prequel failed is the knowing fun it has with it. It’s wilfully unsubtle, subversive, and the right level of silly. Honestly, I think with this film the franchise reaches its final form: a modern day exploitation movie.

After a standard formula built over the last four films, The Forever Purge allows itself to be distinct. From the opening frame, the visuals are wildly different, now in rural landscapes rather than cities. It’s consistently visually strong and probably the best directed of the series. I was expecting the Yellowstone-style family of rich white ranchers to be the villains so the team up was a nice surprise, with some fun but genuine conflict between the protagonists. I wish there were stronger villains but the heroes are the best the franchise has outside of Frank Grillo.

True to the title, the Purge doesn’t stop at the 7am siren this time but continues, letting us see beyond the confines of a single night. Even seeing people get arrested in a Purge movie is a fun novelty and novelty is probably the film’s strongest feature. We get scenes in daylight, in an entirely new type of location, and even see some of the cleanup after the chaos of the night before. The Purge continuing, lawlessness never stopping, may break the concept of the franchise but for a supposedly final film in a tired franchise, why not? The Forever Purge explodes the concept in a satisfying way, with a fitting ending being America truly and finally tearing itself apart.

1) The Purge: Election Year (2016)

Election Year is Anarchy again but even better, even more overtly Escape from New York, with Frank Grillo’s Leo Barnes (he gets a name this time) having to protect a hunted progressive presidential hopeful on Purge night. There’s some timeline skew-whiffery to gloss over considering it is set 17 years after the events of Anarchy despite Grillo looking no older, and I do wish Senator Roan was more interesting, a character rather than just a mouthpiece, but other than that I think it’s pretty great and everything I want in a Purge movie.

It’s not a horror at all but is intriguing enough as an action thriller to work, with Grillo grounding the plot and action in right the right level of believability. The movies are political statements but Election Year, as the title suggests, is able to actually impact events. The franchise says the Purge is bad, no shit, but this film actually lets people do something about it, make a change. There are stakes, both personal and nationwide. And it has fun placing Purge visuals into Washington DC, like blood staining the Lincoln memorial and a guillotine on the streets.

There are some darkly funny new additional details fleshing out the world, like the concept of murder tourists – foreigners who travel to the US just to take part in the Purge – as well as Purge insurance, EMTs, and body removal services. There’s some, dare I say it, depth to the characters with many having to atone for past sins. Betty Gabriel is a great new addition as a reformed badass, Terry Serpico is a fun villain, and even Grillo goes on a journey of having to trust others.

The ending is genuinely satisfying. Maybe it’s a little too clean but having the church full of NFFA wiped out is not only a good ending for the film but the trilogy too. It easily could have been the end of the series, and if The Forever Purge wasn’t so fun (although I might be alone in thinking that) it probably should have been. The first three films escalate and culminate in the best of the franchise: Election Year.