The filmmaker behind “The Purge” franchise is looking back on the five movies so far and dropping hints for the next installment. Spoiler: He says it’s based on an America split by ideology, sexuality and race.
Franchise creator and director James DeMonaco worked on the script for “The Purge” for a decade. In a recent interview with Collider, the filmmaker revealed that he wasn’t even sure theaters in the U.S. would screen the film. According to DeMonaco, the first draft likely would have been X-rated because of its extreme violence, but the low budget helped him keep only what was necessary to tell the story.
“We thought it would be this tiny indie horror thriller, and I didn’t think it had any mainstream appeal … because the script was so anti-American,” he said.
The first “Purge” film hit theaters in 2013 to mostly negative reviews — The Times called it a “dreary exploitation slog” — but the public reception was off the charts, and people seemed to connect with the deeper message of the film. It debuted at No. 1 and earned nearly $90 million despite its meager $3-million budget. The “Purge” franchise includes five films so far, and a sixth is now in talks with Universal, but not yet confirmed.
When the fifth installation, “The Forever Purge,” was announced, DeMonaco said he planned it to be the conclusion of the series, but it seems the “Purge” universe might have room for at least one more.
“It’s the political landscape that makes me keep wanting to purge,” he told Collider. And, he said, the script for “The Purge 6” is already finished.
“What’s fueled all the ideas is the social discord in the country right now,” DeMonaco said, adding that “The Purge 6” is just his way of looking at the United States.
“I was extrapolating on the discord and taking it to its furthest, as far as you can take that idea of what’s going on in the country and the political landscape. And it’s a broken America,” he continued. “[It’s] about the remapping of America based on ideology, sexuality, and religion.”
“And what’s so strange is that Marjorie Taylor Greene — I’m not gonna say more than her name there — recently wished for an America like that, which to me would be the most nightmarish version. It goes against everything that America stands for. … She doesn’t see it that way.”
DeMonaco told The Times in 2018 that the original concept stemmed from an overblown road rage incident.
“My wife said something in a road rage incident that stayed with me. This guy almost killed us — and she’s a nice person, I hope this doesn’t reflect poorly on her, but she said something like, ‘I wish I had one a year,’ meaning one legal murder. It was a moment of anger, but the idea of one legal murder a year stayed with me,” he told The Times’ Sonaiya Kelley.
“To me, [the Purge is] one of the most grotesque concepts of all time. So anyone who takes it as some kind of sick wish or glorification of violence… it’s the opposite intention from the filmmakers.”
