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In "The Purge: Election Year," writer-director James DeMonaco tries to add a political message to the murderous mayhem of what is now a trilogy of over-the-top bloodshed.
Sgt. Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo), the conflicted hero of "The Purge: Anarchy," is now head of security for Sen. Charlene "Charlie" Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), a presidential candidate who has vowed to end the annual Purge, where all crime is legal for one night. The ruling party, which supports the Purge, uses the night of madness to engineer an assassination attempt on Roan. Barnes saves Roan, but the two must take to the streets, where they find help from a salty mini-mart owner (Mykelti Williamson) and his Mexican employee (Joseph Julian Soria), along with some anti-Purge rebels.
DeMonaco revels in the stylized violence of the Purge, which falls somewhere between "Night of the Living Dead" and "A Clockwork Orange." (He never explains how purging, which the movie tells us has gone on for 25 years, became such an art project,) But as the story plays out, the dramatic tension bleeds away and the political analogy becomes as butchered as the Purge's many victims.
'The Purge: Election Year'
Opens Friday, July 1, at theaters everywhere; rated R for disturbing bloody violence and strong language; 109 minutes.