The Purge – Franchise Catch Up

Posted on July 8, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

The Purge films never appealed to me, I thought the premise was stupid and just couldn’t get on board with the idea. For those that don’t know, it centres around the annual Purge. A night where for 12 hours everything is legal. People riot, loot and murder to their hearts content and then there are no repercussions and they all live happily for the next year. I’ve been told by several people that these are good horror films and with a new one in the cinema soon, I’ve decided it’s time to catch up and give them all a go. After watching each film in the series so far, I’ve written my initial thoughts on each one.

The Purge

Now that I’ve watched it, I can confirm the premise is stupid. It’s even presented stupidly in the film. The idea that everyone can commit murder for one day and then be happy for the following year just makes no sense. However if you can get past this and get on board with the set-up, then there are some tense moments and some genuine terror in store for you. Sadly, this is mostly undermined by bad and clunky dialogue, annoying unlikable characters and enough plot holes to fit their humongous house in. Why does the dad equip their house with the security system he sells, when he knows it doesn’t work? Why don’t they use their guns to take out the attackers while they are still outside? If they are mega-rich and live in a world where this happens every year, why don’t they have automated turrets or guns? Why don’t they have a panic room? Why do they leave the man who they decide to defend tied up, instead of getting him to help? Why don’t rich people holiday abroad for that one day?

This film will leave you with more questions, and that’s even without diving into the premise too much and questioning what it means for racism and class equality in America. If everything is legal for one night, surely racism and prejudice would run wild. People can’t purge their idiotic thoughts. They do dance around with this, but they stray away from diving into it and actually giving answers.

On top of all the questions the film gives you, it also isn’t scary. The group of bad guys are just annoying.  The person playing their leader can’t act and his dialogue is beyond stupid. Apparently everyone turns into psychos for the one night, I wonder how they act normally. They skip around with machetes, which isn’t menacing in the slightest. The neighbours also perform a ritualistic sermon before attempting to kill the remaining family. It’s stupid, over the top and detracts from any horror the film has set up. There is also an over-reliance on people being saved just at the nick of time. The film does have some tense moments, that build slowly and it can be gripping in places, but it just turns dumb too quickly to do anything with it. They are there to kill them, but pop their head around corners in an almost jump-scare fashion and watch them walk away instead.

I feel that this could have been a good film, if the characters were more likeable. If they weren’t mega rich elites then it could have been better. It wasn’t the worst film I’ve ever seen, but I don’t think it deserves much praise either. I’ve started so I’ll continue with the rest of them. Hopefully they aren’t all this bad. I feel stupider just watching it. At least it was only an hour and 20ish minutes. This was longer than I planned.

Purge: Anarchy

Miles better than the first one. The premise is still stupid, but it makes more sense here. We learn that The Purge is designed to lower the population. This one starts from a much better starting point as the characters are likable. Gone are the rich elite, here are working class people who just want to survive. It’s tense, entertaining and thrilling. The race and class issues that were danced around in the first one are tackled head on in this one, which is good. The world is more interesting, the villains are actually scary and not clowns. The stakes are real and there is a lot less saving people at the last moment. However, the culling of the population makes less sense the more you think about it.  It’s also strange that the hospital isn’t flooded with people at the end.

Overall, it’s a much better film and I enjoyed this one. Nothing spectacular, but enjoyable. I do have a burning question. If someone did something horrible, and I mean beyond extreme, like fed someone their own newborn child and then left them alive. Would the person retaliate the following day or honour the Purge and let it be or get revenge the next year. That’s the story I want from the next one. They almost did it with this one but it was a random drunk hit and run outside of a Purge night. A real missed opportunity. 

The Purge: Election Year

The first half of this one is the best of the series so far. The three story-lines progressing separately before joining together, feels a little like a TV Show, but is really well done and keeps the pace moving nicely. They’re also engaging storylines. Sadly, this isn’t sustained through the whole of the film and once the 3 storylines join together it starts to become very bland and cookie-cutter feeling.

The stupid annoying girls who try to break into the store are so frustrating. I don’t know why we have the slow-mo skipping from the first one back. Why is it there? It’s not scary, it’s not funny. Why? When they die it’s a relief, but the effects in this scene look so bad and amateurish, especially the girl getting shot with the shotgun in the face. It’s appalling effects for film from 2016.

The acting in this one is a mixed bag. The sweating politicians are so over the top and it’s just distracting. The main characters are decent enough. I just wish we didn’t get the church scene at the end. The crazy priest and politician guy. It’s like in the first one with the guy at the door, talking to the family. Are the writers trying to go for so bad it’s good or funny? It doesn’t work in this case, it’s just silly and destroys any kind of tension that’s been built up. 

I do think the second film is better than this one overall, but the first 40 or so minutes of this was pretty great. It doesn’t keep it up, sadly. One more to go.

The First Purge

We have an origin story for The Purge. It tries very hard to deal with the main concept of the series and make it feel believable and I think that’s its main success, it does that. Seeing the beginnings make the rest feel more plausible. It starts small, with fudged numbers and builds from there.  

In this one, we see that The Purge is started as an experiment and certain participants are given money to purge. This is where it starts and when people don’t join in as expected, the NFFA take matters into their own hands. It does feel a lot more real, that the idea that started The Purge is just to cull the population and not to cut crime throughout the rest of the year. This was mentioned in the second one, but it wasn’t clear if that was why it started or what it turned into.

The film itself is quite boring though. There are some interesting characters, but it isn’t gripping. It chugs along at its own pace and has some good moments. It’s still miles better than the first one, but not amazing. I do like that the series never becomes a parody of itself. There are so many long running horror series where film 3 onwards is more comedic and silly than scary. I don’t think any of them have been scary, as much as the first one tried to be, but at least they haven’t started being silly. It also deals with some tougher subjects in this one, there’s a lot of white supremacism as villains which makes this one feel a lot more realistic.

Final Thoughts

The Purge series is not great. The first one is a dreadful horror film that isn’t scary, has way too many stupid moments and doesn’t do anything original. It’s essentially The Strangers, but somehow even worse than that crap. The second one is bigger in scale, and with a bigger focus on action. I like this one the most. It has the best characters, the best pacing and makes the world and premise interesting. The third one, revolving around an election has a genuinely great opening 40 minutes or so. Then it just goes on and on. It’s nothing special but the opening makes it a decent film. The 4th one almost makes the whole set up plausible but isn’t a great stand-alone film, as it’s quite dull. It’s more of a crutch for those that can’t get passed the premise. Hopefully one of the future films will deal with how this would affect the rest of the year. It feels like there’s a lot more social commentary in the later films, which is good as it’s missing from the first one. When the central idea is stood upon population control and wealth disparity, it would be great if the film dealt with that, otherwise they may just be randomly attacked by a group of psychos who have some kind of signal blocker to stop them calling the police. It would be the same plot, essentially. The actual Purge itself doesn’t really matter in the first one.

To be honest, I wouldn’t recommend the series to anyone, at least unless there isn’t anything else available. As much as I want to like them, I just don’t. The skipping characters in 1 and 3 are just annoying. The films themselves are forgettable, watchable trash. That’s the best thing I can say about them. They do have there moments, but they just aren’t that good. If you have to watch one, start with number 2. It’s the best one by a mile and a decent movie in its own right. The first one should be avoided at all costs, it’s appallingly bad. 3 + 4 are decent enough, but nothing spectacular.

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The Visit – Film Review

Posted on July 7, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: M Night Shyamalan

Starring: Olvia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, peter McRobbie and Kathryn Hahn

Rating: ★★★★

After making The Last Airbender, which is considered by many to be not only the worst adaptation of all time, but one of the worst films of all time, Shyamalan followed it up with the also poorly received After Earth. Changing lanes completely, he then self-financed a small scale horror film, The Visit in 2015. This has been hailed as a return to form, and Shyamalan would go on to make Split and Glass, both worthy successes of Unbreakable, one of the best ‘superhero’ films ever made.

The Visit is a found-footage horror film, about two children visiting their grandparents for the first time. They have never met them, or even know what they look like. The elder of the two children,  Becca played by DeJonge (The Society, The Sisterhood of Night) is an amateur documentary filmmaker and decides to document the visit. This is how the film is presented to us.

Unlike a lot of found footage films, the camera isn’t completely distracting here, there are moments where it swings around wildly but it’s not going to make most people feel sick. It works for the set up and does bring you closer to the intimate horror. Towards the end, when everything starts to really pick up; it does sadly fall into the usual trappings of the camera having to be picked up and moved by characters where in real life they would probably leave it and run. It’s not quite as bad as Cloverfield in this regard, but it does take you out of it a little.

With that being said, The Visit is an excellent film and is worthy of being called Shyamalan’s return to form. It’s creepy and unsettling, every performance is great and the twist, while predictable, is executed perfectly and to great effect. Using the camera to take you into the house, makes you feel like you’re almost part of the action, instead of a spectator, this combined with the more plausible feel to the plot adds to the horror and tension.

The Visit is very creepy, with an unsettling tone from almost the start. It ramps up quickly, with a very tense hide and seek game/chase under the house. It’s scary and will have you on the edge of your seat. Sadly, the horror doesn’t really get more intense than this until right at the end. It stays on the same level for most of the film, as the week trip moves from day to day. It isn’t until the last 15 or so minutes where it steps up again. If it built up more gradually then this could be one of the scariest films ever made. The Hide and Seek part is genuinely scary, it’ll have you on the edge of your seat and then it mellows out until the end.  

Since this was released, 6 years ago, it has divided opinions. There are a lot of top reviews out there and a lot saying it’s shallow, messy and not scary. I can understand where they are coming from, I think it depends on how distracting you find the found-footage genre and if you find the lead actors believable. I think they are great and if you watch it in a dark room and let yourself get drawn in, then it’s scary. It is listed as a comedy-horror and while it does have a few humorous moments, it’s not funny enough to be labelled as a comedy. To me this is a horror film. It’s tense and unsettling.

One of the humorous bits in the film is that most people who encounter Becca, start reciting lines, claiming they used to be an actor. It’s hard not to imagine this is Shyamalan venting a frustration he must face on a day to day basis. It’s not played out and gets a smile at the very least every time.

The Visit is a great little horror film. The tension is there from almost the beginning and doesn’t let up. I wish it built up more as it goes along, but it’s still a scary film that’s best watched in the dark at night. At 90ish minutes it keeps a good pace and doesn’t feel like it drags at any point. Shyamalan has proven that he can make genuine horror.

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Mid-Week Update

Posted on July 7, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Hey everyone,

I hope you enjoyed my new Short Story – A Knock At The Door. I’ve had some nice feedback from it, which I’m happy about. If you haven’t already, you can read it here:

https://ashleymanning.com/2021/07/02/a-knock-at-the-door/

I am working on a new short story, that I hope to be ready by the end of month. I’m about a third of the way through I think. This one isn’t as dark, but it’s still horror/fantasy.

I’ve also got the next Franchise Catch Up ready to go up tomorrow morning. This time for The Purge. I binged the first 4, ready for number 5 next week. My originally idea was to do these un-edited, but I rambled a fair bit so I’m going to shorten it down, but it’s still my initial impression without thinking too much about it. I’m going to start on the next Franchise Catch Up soon, I’m thinking John Wick. I’ve never seen them, which always seems to shock people and a 4th one is on the way.

My daily film reviews will still be coming. After posting this, I’m going to be working on the one for this evening. I’m also going to see Black Widow tonight, so will be uploading my review for that tomorrow afternoon. I know they’ve been a bit random and all over the place so far. I don’t know whether it would be better to list what I’m going to do each week or just release them randomly. If you have a preference, let me know.

I’ve separated my top 50 films in to 10 groups of 5 for posts, starting this Friday. They are in a kind of random order as I couldn’t list them from 50-1. So I’ve grouped them in my head, some will be an obvious grouping while others will seem random, but it might have something to do with when I saw them first or how I feel about them. The only ones that are in a kind of order will be the last 2 posts. These are Tier 2 and Tier 1. Any of the 5 films in Tier 1 can take the top spot, depending on what day of the week it is. They’re going to be pretty short summaries of why I like them so much. I hope you enjoy.

I’m also going to be putting up a post about what I’ve been reading recently, on Saturday or Sunday. I’ve ready a couple of books that I can’t wait to talk about.

I’m going to go back to it, got 2 reviews to write this morning before more writing this afternoon and then back to work tomorrow to Saturday. Thanks for reading and until next time,

Ashley

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Mom and Dad – Film Review

Posted on July 6, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Brian Taylor

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Selma Blair, Anne Winters and Zackery Arthur

Rating: ★★★★

In the endless barrage of recent films starring Nicolas Cage, there are a few good ones. Mom and Dad is a really good one.  Directed by Brian Taylor (who previously co-directed Crank 1 & 2 as well as Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, also starring Cage), Mom and Dad is a horror-comedy that is full of energy, craziness and high-octane violence.

Cage is absolutely brilliant throughout as the unhinged Brent. A highlight being when he sings Hokey Cokey while smashing up a pool table, he had just spent hours building perfectly. It’s over the top insanity in a way that only Cage can be. Contrasting that is Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde), who plays Brent’s wife, Kendall in the film. Her character is more subtle and subdue, complimenting Cage’s crazy while they both try to kill their children.

That’s what Mom and Dad is about. Some kind of disease that makes every parent in America want to kill their children, regardless of age. The origins are never really explained, not that it matters. It just starts, almost out of nowhere and then children are at risk, even new-borns, in one very dark sequence. It’s only their own children, that the parent’s want to kill. They can see the insanity of the other parents but find joy in it themselves.

While the premise is dark and horrific, the film itself is much more light-hearted and focused on the comedy, rather than horror. The pacing and camerawork are energetic and hectic, much like Taylor’s earlier films. Quick cuts are used well, fast moving sequences adding to the humour and making the story compelling. There is a lot of tension as the children are being chased around, and after seeing how brutally their peers are murdered, you want them to survive. Even if at first the two children, Carly and Josh played by Anne Winters and Zackery Arthur, are intentionally annoying. You can completely see how the parents are pushed to their limits, it’s only when they snap and go off the rails, that you start to side with the children. You will them to survive, as their parents try everything to kill them, from power saws to gassing them out of the basement.

Adding to the craziness of Cage’s performance and character is the flashbacks. In which Kendall is always shown as caring, rational and understanding. Brent on the other hand is unhinged, threatening death on his son in a flashback alongside the previously mentioned pool table, which is also in a flashback. He’s one step away from murder anyway, whatever causes the murderous intent isn’t needed, as he’s one hotel stay away from being Jack Torrance from The Shining.

Sadly, the film does feel very slow at the beginning. Even though it is barely above 90 minutes, it does feel like it takes a little while to get going. When it does, you’re hooked, but it does take what feels like a long time to get there. There are also moments where it is tense in the later half, but it feels like they should be scarier. It’s unhinged, but it never appears like the 2 main children are in real danger.

Overall, it’s a really good film. It’s funny, tense and once it gets going, it doesn’t slow down until the credits roll. This is Cage at his crazy best, and should go down as one of his classics.  

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The Stylist – Film Review

Posted on July 5, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Jill Gevargizian

Starring: Najarra Townsend, Brea Grant, Davis DeRock, Sarah McGuire

Rating: ★★½

If you take the horror film Maniac from 1980 and instead of a psycho who wanders the streets for victims, changed it to a hairstylist who cuts hair to find her victims; then you have The Stylist. Both feature scalping and mannequins, both feature killers who have messed up lives due to their parents and both show them getting close to someone . The biggest difference between the two is that Maniac feels like an even more unhinged version of Taxi Driver with its gritty and down to Earth presentation, while The Stylist is full of style; it’s a vibrant well shot film that looks great.

Instead of the desolate and run-down hovel of a flat that Zito lives in, Claire lives in a perfect and pristine house, keeping her mannequins in the basement, which to be fair does resemble Zito’s flat. Her life is perfect and organised. Her crackers are stacked nice and uniformly on her plate, everything in the house in lined up perfectly. In fact, when she sees a crease in her otherwise flawless dress, she obsesses over it, not being aware of the people around her. 

Claire is a hairstylist with a secret; she murders people. She works late most weekdays and uses that opportunity to drug and scalp her victims, keeping a collection of human scalps in her basement to try on and adopt their personalities. This changes when she befriends Olivia, as soon to be wed regular, who asks Claire to do her wedding hair. Claire sees this chance at friendship and to live a normal life.

The film is summed up in the prologue scene. The first victim that we see says to Claire, you always want what you don’t have. This is the main theme that the film explores. Claire wants friendship and acceptance, instead of feeling like she’s being left out. Her anxiety is evident in almost every scene, and it’s brought to life by a brilliantly nuanced and intense performance from Najarra Townsend (Contractor, Me and You and Everyone We Know). You can feel her pain and panic in the social situations that she’s in. It’s a real shame that the rest of the performances are poor. The rest of the cast feels unnatural and always feels stilted rather than real.

The Stylist is incredibly slow. Not much really happens in the 1 hour and 45 minute story. After the initial gruesome scalping, the horror is few and fair between. As it continues, you just want something to happen. It’s very boring and there are quite a few sequences that don’t need to be there. We get it, Claire isn’t comfortable in social situations and she stalks people, let’s just move it along. You can, and probably will, zone out during entire scenes and not miss anything vital.

Then you get to the ending. Don’t worry I’m not going to spoil it. This is what the entire film was made for. It is both the most ludicrous and stupid ending possible, and then at the same time fantastic and the perfect cap to the film. Just before it happens, you’ll think to yourself there’s no way that’s where this is going, and then it does. It feels like the idea of the ending came before the rest of the film and that everything else was just needed to justify the finale. It’s honestly worth it for that.

Without the ending, this would be a very bland horror film. It is in no way scary. The gore and effects, while good, are nothing special and won’t do anything for long-term horror fans. The film is boring with how slow the pacing is and most of the actors are poor. However, with that being said, the presentation of the film is gorgeous. Every shot is meticulous, and the score is foreboding and imposing (Which makes a silent sequence even more unnaturally striking). To top it off, Townsend’s performance is fabulous. Just what an ending.

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