Macabre…ish Horror Review: The Purge Series

The Purge Series, 2018/ 2 Seasons

It begins with 97 minutes until the beginning of the purge and store shelves are emptying, guns and ammo are flying off the shelves and shoplifting has increased for people who can’t afford what they need. Doors and windows are boarded up but some people still have to work, Purge or no Purge but with special Purge rules like waving their right to purge and promising not to kill.

A cult is readying adherents to be “purged upon” and the afterlife by driving around in the cult bus and surrendering, one by one, to groups of purgers.

Then there are the most random purge rackets. Where random people caught on the street and forced into playing. One is Otis’ Annual Gauntlet, televised for everyone’s viewing pleasure, complete with host, crew and sponsors. Your choice is to run the gauntlet and possibly die or refuse to do it and definitely die, right now.

There are also kill carnivals where you can buy live martyrs and dispatch them with anything from a guillotine to any other historical, horrible way. Oh and the martyrs are procured by bloody nun abduction.

Some of the wealthy are having Purge parties and galas and so are the degenerates…prepping their own purge parties and purge desserts.

But you get the feeling there is an under current of ulterior motive with a lot of these people. Each hoping to use the “blood holiday” or the cover of the purge to make life better for themselves once it’s over. And none of it is as easy as they thought or quite what they were expecting.

This is, so far, good. I didn’t know they’d make this a series that wasn’t immediately boring but this format is working out. The pacing is pretty good and the cinematography is really good. This show is not particularly graphic or gory but there are some adult scenes.

There is also quite a bit of flashback to fill in character stories. If you like stories, you might like this because it is not about the kills, this is no gore fest, it’s more psychological horror. In the cast is Lee Tergesen, Colin Woodell, Reed Diamond, Max Martini, Fiona Dourif, Gabriel Chavarra, Rochelle Aytes…to name a few.