Five years ago, The Purge (2013) was released into the wild. The idea of living in a world where all crime was legal for 12 hours a year was quite compelling and proved its worth by making Blumhouse Productions and Universal Pictures a lot of money. Even though the ratings weren’t that hot, a squeal was a no-brainer as paying audiences couldn’t stay away. Two sequels followed, both The Purge: Anarchy (2014) and The Purge: Election Year (2016) made decent returns on their investments so there’s little doubt that another film would be forthcoming. Rather than going forward, The First Purge will take you back when everything started.

Crime is on the rise. The financial market is in the crapper. Public opinion is at an all-time low. Something must be done to preserve the American dream. One faction, the New Founding Fathers of America, or NFFA for short, is taking matters into their own hands. This new controversial party has already won the Presidency, but that’s just the beginning. In order to curtail the crime that has been running rampant, a new experiment is about to begin. Using Staten Island as a testing location to launch a controversial pilot program known as the Purge, it would allow citizens to release their angst and frustration by any means necessary, without legal recourse for 12 hours. During this time, murder, robbery and anything else your dark heart desires, would be allowed so that you could “get it out of your system.”

It’s no coincidence that this event is being held in a low income area. There are much more nefarious plans at play here. While some see an opportunity to profit during this time of chaos, others are hoping that cooler heads will prevail. When the NFFA’s plan to have these “undesirables” turn on each other appears to be much less effective than they had hoped, a contingency plan is put into action that will ensure a deadly chaotic purging of the poor.

For the first three films of the franchise, James DeMonaco served as writer and director for each movie. With The First Purge, DeMonaco stayed on as the writer but Gerard McMurray was given the directing reins, and he steers this movie directly into controversial subject matter. From the plot, to the language, to some real-life inferences, McMurray will have some people squirming in their seats. From a casting perspective, bringing in the likes of feature film newcomer Y’lan Noel to interact with Lex Scott Davis (SuperFly (2018)), British television star Joivan Wade, Mugga (she’s got some GREAT lines) and veteran Marisa Tomei, gives the movie some nice variety in different areas.

The First Purge is violent, coarse, excessive in many areas and cruel. It is also thought provoking, funny at times and an eye-opening look inside the darkness of others. There are so many moving parts here and there’s a lot to take in over the relatively short runtime of 97 minutes. You shouldn’t be bored with this one and you’ll also find yourself on the edge of your seats a few times. Adrenaline will high as this thriller plays out. Just give into the tense moments and go with the flow.

Here’s my warning to potential viewers, hypersensitive people that get “butt-hurt” easily might want to just avoid this one. There are definitely some parallels as to what is going on in the real world, and depending on your current stance on our current state of affairs, offenses may be taken. All director Gerard McMurray and writer James DeMonaco did, was to give people something that is thought provoking that maybe burrows a bit too deep for someone’s likings. The First Purge is an excellent representation of what a prequel should be and to what it attempts to achieve. The events that transpire in this film gives everything that comes afterwards, timeline speaking, a clear and concise purpose. You can join the rise of a new movement in theaters today.