In the third chapter of The Purge saga, we find it’s time to cast a vote for the “Election Year”. It’s been two years since Leo “Sergeant” Barnes (Frank Grillo) stopped himself from a regrettable act of revenge on Purge Night, freeing himself from a lifetime of anger and emotional regret after the loss of his son. Now serving as head of security for Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), his mission is to protect her in a run for president and survive the annual ritual that targets the poor and innocent. Roan becomes a hot target on her principal desire to end the purge once and for all, robbing many of their sick annual ritual. But when a betrayal on purge night forces them onto the streets of D.C, on the one night when no help is available, they must stay alive until dawn…or both be sacrificed for their sins against the state. “The Purge: Election Year” is written and directed by James Demonaco, the very same man who penned the first two films. It is rated R for disturbing bloody violence and strong adult language.

The trilogy of Purge films from Blunthouse Entertainment have carved themselves quite a niche. Along the way, they have made three different styles of films (One good and one not so good) that all chalk up to cheap, popcorn fluff, good enough to waste two hours on for a good time. The latest film is no different from this criteria. “Election Year” continues on the evolving concept of a night where anything is legal, proving that this saga could go on much longer than expected because of the different communities and reactions within this twelve hour nightmare. Demonaco once again provides a reflective dose of social commentary that while it lacks subtlety to the highest degree, it does bring out the horrors within our own world. By the lack of subtlety, the movie does feel like it is force feeding its politics down our throats for a majority of this movie, mostly from rich white snobs who control everything. The villains in this movie are very one-dimensional, complete with nazi and confederate flag tattoos, and trade away camera time for quick deaths, resulting in very little dilemma for our protagonists. Whether you believe or disagree in this social stigma, it’s not necessarily something that needs great exposition time wasted on, and I felt that the film was better when it focused on the characters.

For most of those roles, we get a vast difference in background, as well as character motivation to never make any two characters feel alike. Grillo as Leo is once again the best thing to ever happen to these movies. While he isn’t as dependent upon in this movie, this is a character who is proving great restraint and maturity from the last time we saw him in “The Purge: Anarchy”. Grillo never sacrifices bravery to don his business suit, and the film moves most fluently when he is commanding our progress in the script. Elizabeth Mitchell is a decent addition, but we don’t find anything in her that makes her stand out as anything more than the outline of her character from the movie. Yes, the character wants change. Yes, her family was killed. But we never find out the extreme extents of the latter, leaving us with a big gaping hole in her backstory structure. Her performance is solid enough, but nothing to write home about. The debut duo of Mykelti Williamson and Betty Gabriel certainly offers a welcome voice for the African American viewers at home, but their stereotyping is a little borderline offensive. Williamson has some of the very worst line reads from shoddy dialogue that I have read this year. This kind of cheap thrills substance gives the movie a B-movie feel from the 70’s, similar to a film like “The Warriors”, and this continues well into its production.

Most of the movie is shot on handheld style, and I felt that this was a very strong choice in the movie’s overall creative direction. This method gives the audience a feeling of being at ground zero for all of the mayhem, and doesn’t have to lower itself to shaky camera effects to do the trick for some truly graphic and impactful violence and action sequences. Demonaco is smart enough on where to use jump scares in his film, and each of them are used to the fullest not necessarily as a scare tactic, but as an exercise in always keeping his audience guessing. Then there’s the true grit in cinematography for the movie. I really dig that most of the lighting relies on street lights and dim skylights for a majority of the film. This kind of reminded me of a world that is quickly fading to grey on what’s right and wrong, and really lacking a lot of color. It’s kind of symbolism for the very infrastructure of this setting, and the look is certainly not something that has ever been lacking in any of these movies.

The film does leave room for a sequel, and while I consider this movie only the second best in the trilogy to a much more emotionally gripping “Anarchy”, I can totally understand where a fourth film would take us, and would look quite forward to the direction that movie would take our characters. The well isn’t quite dry yet for this series, but I would hope that one final movie could wrap everything up while this series still has a bone of dignity left.

Overall, “The Purge: Election Year” is a vote for cheap thrills and a fun time in fantasy horror that you can easily get lost in. There’s enough madness and mayhem to remind yourself that this is only a movie, but enough social satire to instill some great thought-provoking comparisons to the very issues that we are currently facing in our own world. James Demonaco certainly has a distinctive view on the world, and while “Election Year” isn’t quite the right stage thematically for such complexity, the movie is just silly enough to drop your guard and get a little mad.

6/10