“Have a safe night” is that ominous line from The Purge (2013) that still haunts viewers who’ve stuck with the beloved film franchise over the years. It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since the release of the first film, which centers on a family in a futuristic U.S. where unemployment and crime rates are down, thanks to an annual 12-hour celebration known as “the Purge” where all crime — even murder — is totally legal. Danger descends on the family of a security executive (Ethan Hawke) after his conflicted young son lets a stranger, who’s being chased by “purgers,” into their home. Chaos ensues, with a splash of ultra-violence…
In celebration of the film’s 10-year anniversary, we recently caught up with writer-director James DeMonaco, who’s also responsible for the hit Purge sequels and other Ethan Hawke collaborations. The Staten Island native spoke about the origins of his first film, his real-life childhood fear of guns, and an upcoming horror-drama film of his starring none other than Pete Davidson (Bodies Bodies Bodies).
There Was Never Meant to Be a Purge Franchise
A decade can fly by in the life of a busy filmmaker. DeMonaco seemed to be scratching his head at the thought of The Purge hitting the masses that long ago. “It feels both like it was yesterday and 100 years ago. I don’t know if COVID has thrown a strange time continuum,” he told MovieWeb. “Everything feels wrong about time. So yeah, even before COVID though, The Purge felt so long ago, yet also, at the same time, the opening night feels like it happened last week.”
The Purge was produced on a small budget, as reflected in the contained feel of the first one. That claustrophobic vibe surrounding the imperiled family’s home sort of echoes the style of the first couple Die Hard films. DeMonaco weighed in on whether he envisioned a whole franchise to follow such a small project:
“It was never supposed to be more than one movie. So I guess it always will feel incredibly strange that it led to anything more than one movie. As we were shooting [The Purge], I had this strange feeling, there was part of me that knew there might be part of the audience that would be somewhat frustrated with the fact that this was a country-wide conceit, and we were only spending time in one house […] But again, I never thought [a franchise] would happen.”
And because the first film feels so contained, it’s no surprise DeMonaco supplemented the story with that more expansive opening title sequence containing endless CCTV clips of various Purge deeds across this futuristic America. DeMonaco confirmed that this intro sequence “was built out of my fear that the audience would be ultra-curious as to, ‘What does America look like? What does a Purge night around the country, in the streets?’ And that was a band-aid, something that I was feeling, like, ‘Oh, people are gonna want to see this.'”
‘I Find Nothing Scarier Than a Gun’
And going back to square one, how exactly did the talented writer-director come up with such a clever, daunting future for our great nation? DeMonaco explained:
It was a couple of things that were happening simultaneously. My biggest fear in life, since I was a little boy, I’ve had a fear of guns. I find nothing scarier than a gun. And I think the conceit was born out of my fear of guns, that to me, nothing could be scarier than allowing people to use guns on a singular evening.
“And then, the actual conceit about the holiday was born from something my wife said when we had a road rage incident in Brooklyn,” continued DeMonaco We were driving home one night to a place in the city, and a drunk driver ran us off the road, and he was wild. He was completely boozed up and drunk and raging, and he almost killed us.”
“We got out of the car. He and I got into a spat. My wife was so upset. As we got back in the car, after the cops came in, she said, ‘Wow, I wish we all had one free one, one legal one a year.’ I knew what she meant, that we can get away with murder, legally once a year, and it just stayed with me. I’m like, ‘Oh, what a nihilistic conceit.'”
“And I guess there was my fear of guns,” added DeMarco. “At the time, as it is still now, there were so many shootings in schools and mass shootings in America. I was actually living in Paris, and I didn’t know anyone in Paris who owned a gun. And I was always like, ‘Well, America has such a unique relationship with guns and violence.’ And it was putting all that stuff into a kind of box, mixed it around, and somehow The Purge was born out of all those thoughts.”
Ethan Hawke and Future Projects
The Purge (2013) is heightened by a committed turn from veteran actor Ethan Hawke. It’s no surprise, then, that DeMonaco has worked with him on projects outside the Purge universe. “Ethan is my favorite actor to work with. He’s just a great human. He’s not only a great actor, he’s a great human being and a great collaborator,” said DeMonaco.
I don’t think there’s anyone that any director in the world would want to have on their set more than Ethan Hawke. He’s just there for the process and will do anything to make it better. We met on Assault on Precinct 13, which I wrote and he was in, and we just started sharing our love of old cinema, new cinema, foreign cinema. And yeah, he’s so knowledgeable. It’s incredible.
Looking ahead, DeMonaco is busy wrapping up a highly anticipated project called The Home. And looking at its lead actor, you might just do a double-take. “Pete Davidson is a fellow Staten Islander. It’s a horror movie, horror drama. There’s no comedy, which I think people will be very surprised to see, and a great way to see Pete do a movie where he’s not funny,” said DeMonaco. “I don’t think there’s a funny moment in the movie. And he’s fantastic. I’ve known Pete since he was a young man, and to see him turn into an actor outside the comedy realm like this — I was even on set saying, ‘Wait, how did you learn to do this?’ I have no idea.”
Until The Home hits the masses, movies like The Purge and its sequels are certainly worth revisiting — and there’s hope that this isn’t the end of the road for the franchise, despite the current writers’ strike. “I did write [The Purge] Part 6, which I finished about five months ago,” confided DeMonaco.
It’s the return of the Frank Grillo character from Anarchy and Election Year, so that’s out there. And it’s very political. There’s also talk about another version, for a TV show. So hopefully, you and I are talking after the writers’ strike about the next Purge installments, but I don’t know what the studio is going to do.
We hope so too. Watch this space.
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