What I Watched In July

I’m a fan of the Purge film series and was excited to be able to return to theaters this summer to see a new entry. This fourth sequel seems even more eerily prescient than the earlier films which is both impressive and sad. Seeming to have somehow looked into the future and watched the pathetic events of January 6^th, 2021 play out THE FOREVER PURGE (2021) posits that eight years after electing a sane president that ended the annual Purge, the right-wing New Founding Fathers party regains control and uses its power to reinstate the annual event. But it turns out that the party and its followers have plans to finally secure their place atop the country’s power structure by doing away with the façade of democratic rule. Hence, The Forever Purge in which every day it is legal to murder the people who disagree with you or ‘threaten’ America.

This is a scenario that could have made for one of the better films in the series but it doesn’t quite make the grade. Although the cast is strong and the pace of things is pretty fast the film is heavy handed and mostly simplistically literal in its messaging. This created a certain detachment from the story making me only a curious observer of events rather than someone invested in the emotions onscreen. This is a shame as the idea of the New Founding Fathers Party finally ripping off the mask and letting their fascist flag fly free should have made for a much more interesting tale. The decision to step back from the edges of the governmental level resistance and once again focus on random representative individuals at the fringes of society feels like the wrong move. I hope the series can find a way to return to the creative highs of the previous films in future installments.

THE LIST 

SYNDICATE SADISTS (1975) – 8 (rewatch)

THE INVISIBLE MAN APPEARS (1949) – 6 (interesting Japanese variation) 

KNIFE OF ICE (1972) – 8 (excellent mystery by Lenzi) 

SEX, DEMONS AND DEATH (1975) – 4 (jumbled mess) 

SUPERMAN RETURNS (2006) – 8 (rewatch) (better than I remembered) 

THE TOMORROW WAR (2021) – 7 (solid action/SF with super stupid plotting) 

WHERE THE NORTH BEGINS (1947) – 5 (Canadian Mountie short) 

HITCHER IN THE DARK (1989) – 6 (Lenzi horror in Virginia) 

MASSACRE TIME (1966) – 6 (Fulci western) 

COSMOS: WAR OF THE PLANETS (1978) – 2 (So, so bad) 

BLACK WIDOW (2021) – 8 (Marvel does the character proud) 

IT AIN’T HAY (1943) – 6 (Abbot & Costello do Damon Runyon) 

WILD WILD PLANET (1965) – 7 (rewatch) 

THE FOREVER PURGE (2021) – 6 

AMERICAN RICKSHAW (1989) – 7 (rewatch) 

CHILD IN THE NIGHT (1990) – 7 (interesting TV movie)

FLIGHT TO MARS (1951) – 6 (new Blu) 

TIME TO KILL (1947) – 7 (Michael Shayne covering The High Window) 

SHADOWS OVER CHINATOWN (1946) – 6 (Toler as Charlie Chan) 

THE HAND THAT FEEDS THE DEAD (1974) – 6 (another Klaus Kinski mad scientist gothic) 

THE MACABRE LEGENDS OF THE COLONIES (1974) – 6 (masked wrestlers transported to 16th century to fight a vengeful witch!)

DOCKS OF NEW ORLEANS (1948) – 6 (Winters as Charlie Chan) 

1941 (1979) – 9 (rewatch of extended version) 

THE EMPTY MAN (2020) – 8 (fascinating slow burn horror) 

STARCRASH (1978) – 6 (rewatch) 

SWORD OF THE CONQUEROR (1961) – 7 (better than average peplum) 

THE GIRL IN BLACK STOCKINGS (1957) – 7 (murder mystery)

THE NUDE PRINCESS (1976) – 4 

RABID (2019) – 6 (remake is not bad but not great) 

NO SUDDEN MOVE (2021) – 8 (twisty crime tale set in 1954) 

SPHINX (1981) – 6 (interesting Egyptian adventure) 

CREEPOZOIDS (1987) – 4 (terrible low budget ALIEN/THE THING riff)