THE FOREVER PURGE (2021) – A Bloody good time!
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

(from left) Dylan Tucker (Josh Lucas) and a Purger in The Forever Purge, directed by Everardo Valerio Gout.
At last! A new release that actually delivers! The Forever Purge is the latest and presumably final entry in the Purge franchise. Which is a pity actually since, judging from this film, the series still has plenty of range to be exploited for future instalments.
The Forever Purge is as the title suggests, about the breakdown of the Purge system which basically allows lawlessness for 12 hours once a year in America. After years of build up, a good portion of the Americans have taken upon themselves to break the law beyond the one day, and declare a Forever Purge practice instead. At the same time, these renegades are portrayed as hard core red necks who are anti immigrants and target these people to eliminate in their rampage. The story focus on what happens to a family of range owners near the Mexican border, and how they try to survive the mindless killings. Ingrained in the minds of some people is the resentment against the many Mexican immigrants who have crossed the border to America in pursue of a better life. I liked that there was a nice undercurrent of this that plays through the mayhem which even offers some sort of reconciliatory message at the end. For all the brutal violence and use of guns to kill, am I the only one who feels that The Forever Purge is oddly promoting an anti guns message as it comes across as a cautionary message on the effects of readily accessibility of guns in America? Sometimes you need to use violence to send a strong message against violence!
The action presented throughout the movie were skillfully executed. Director Everardo Gout knows how to stage these admittedly familiar scenes with just the right amount of novelty to make them less predictable. His wide angle scenes shot from a bird’s eye view were impressive as it lay out the widespread mayhem in a nutshell. The surround sound system is also utilised extensively during the many shot outs and explosive scenes giving a nice added dimension to the viewing if you have a sound system setup at 5.1 or above. The cast is made up of unfamiliar faces but they were all good and convincing in their roles. One advantage of having unfamiliar faces in the cast is you never know who gets to be killed off early. If we have a big name cast we know he or she will survive at least till the end.
It has been awhile since the last Purge movie which was “The First Purge” in 2018. Since then two seasons of The Purge were released in 2018 and 2019. While all of these movies and TV series fall under the same “Purge Universe”, there is no major recurring character that flows from one entry to another. Each is very much an independent standalone story falling under the similar environment. So, in other words, you don’t need to have been following this franchise in order to enjoy The Forever Purge. No excuse. Just watch this!