The Corner Penthouse

The First Purge is the fourth film in the popular franchise that dates back to 2013. In preparation for this review, I was able to watch the first two movies - The Purge (2013) and The Purge: Anarchy (2014) - but I was not able to watch the third film, The Purge: Election Year (2016). Is The First Purge as good as the others? Read on to find out...


The premise of the Purge movies is that for a 12 hour period, one day a year, all crime is legal. As the title alludes, The First Purge takes place before any of the other films and shows how this this new American "holiday" came to be. The New Founding Fathers of America are in charge of America's political landscape, and are all too happy to try out Dr. Updale's (Marisa Tomei) risky, theoretical social experiment. Once Dmitri (Y'Lan Noel) is aware that his hometown of Staten Island has been selected to partake in this monumental social study, he naturally becomes suspicious of its purpose. Alongside community activist Nya (Lex Scott Davis) and her younger brother Isaiah (Joivan Wade), the three take to the streets of the first ever purge to protect their city and seek to survive at the risk of their own lives.


One of the big issues I had with the first two movies is that although all crime is legal, all everyone does is murder. Where is the stealing, the raping, and all of the other crimes that are now legal? Why isn't anyone stealing the valuables from the museums? Why isn't anyone stocking up on "free food" from the local grocery store? The First Purge does show a little bit of that. A guy tries to "rob" an ATM. Others loot a pawn shop. A couple is seen screwing on the hood of a car in the middle of the street; though it didn't appear to be rape. In fact, when the purge first starts, most people are using it as a chance to have fun and murder-free "purge parties"; all while collecting money from Dr. Updale's group for "participating" in this experiment.


Of course, it isn't long before "bad things" happen, thanks in part to Skeletor (Rotimi Paul). No, not the He-Man villain. This Skeletor is a psychotic ex-con who has been released upon the island in order to satiate his bloodlust and his need to "purge". Since all crime is legal, Rotimi Paul steals the movie. The rest of the cast do an admirable job, with Y'lan Noel as anti-hero Dmitri, as the other standout. Most of the cast were unknown to me. Marisa Tomei is the biggest name here, though horror enthusiasts may recognize Luna Lauren Velez (Luisa) as Maria LaGuerta on the Showtime series "Dexter" (2006-2013).


The movie moves briskly, and has an action movie feel, with a creepy horror vibe. It's interesting to see how the purge started, though it's sad that I can sum up the whole movie in two sentences: All minorities are good. All whites are bad.


At a runtime of 1:37:25, The First Purge is presented in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with an 1080p transfer. Picture is crisp and clear with no issues that I noticed. On the audio side, there are two English tracks - DTS:X Master Audio and 2.0 Descriptive - which are loud and clear; along with French and Spanish DTS Digital Surround 5.1 tracks. The film includes English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles. The first print run includes a beautiful slipsleeve.


All of the bonus features that can be found on the disc are in HD.

• Deleted Scene: Escalation (1:47) - Skeletor comes out of the closet and attacks the crew in the apartment. (Scene name is given in the official online upload, embedded below. It is unnamed on the disc. Also, this scene explains the broken window continuity error in the film.)
• A Radical Experiment (4:57) - Cast and filmmakers discuss how The First Purge expands on the themes of the franchise, making them more culturally relevant than ever before.
• Bringing The Chaos (1:24) - Explores the elements that ramped up the action in the film and made it the most intense installment yet.
• The Masks Of The First Purge (1:22) - A look at how the masks in the film added to the terror.

Also included in the Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack is a second DVD disc, which contains all of the bonus features listed above. The movie on the DVD is presented in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with an anamorphic widescreen transfer. On the audio side, there are 5.1 Dolby Digital audio tracks for English, French, and Spanish, plus a Dolby Digital 2.0 English Descriptive track. The film includes English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles.

A Movies Anywhere (Ultraviolet) digital copy code voucher is also included in the standard two-disc Blu-ray case.


The First Purge is available on Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack, 4K/Blu-Ray Combo Pack, and individual DVD. If you don't own any of the previous installments, you can buy them all in The Purge: 4-Movie Collection (also available on DVD)

The Purge franchise has expanded to television with a 10-episode limited series currently airing on the USA Network (Tuesdays at 10 PM after WWE Smackdown). It seems that the series will be released on Blu-ray and DVD in the near future. I will cover that in due time, and look forward to seeing how they expand upon the ideas from the movies into what could be considered a 10-hour "movie" (probably 9-hours without commercials).












All images were taken from the IMDB gallery of the film. The Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack has been provided by Universal for review on this site.