Starring Ana de la Requera, Tenoch Huerta, Josh Lucas, Cassidy Freeman, Leven Rambin, Alejandro Edda and Sammi Rotibi

Directed by Everardo Gout

Blumhouse, out now

After a dalliance with non horrifying governments who legalize murder, the NFFA are back in control of America and have handed it all the weapons it wants for Murder Christmas. But this year, a faction of Purgers have no intention of stopping…

Blumhouse’s most interesting series (possibly) concludes with this fifth movie and if so, it bows out strongly. The set up is neatly designed to reward folks who’ve seen the previous movies (Anarchy and Election Year focus on the previous President’s nightmarish run for office) but if this is your first Purge movie it still works. Gout cleverly keeps thing simple and street level but also designs the action so we, and the characters, never have any idea where the next attack is coming from. The run for the border, through streets ripped apart by the American Civil War, is especially nightmarish but the final fight is where the movie’s action and character collide. The survivors split up, sending half over the border into Mexico (Itself a neat reversal of the two leads’ initial journey to the US) while the others defend them, with almost no ammunition or hope. What follows is an untidy, brutal fight absolutely defined by character which uses the necessity of survival to teach one of the franchise’s most interesting characters a vital lesson.

Those characters are all impressive, with the Tucker family, ranchers who can afford to feel liberal guilt, forming roughly half the cast. Will Patton is typically excellent as patriarch Caleb while Leven Rambin and Cassidy Freeman are wasted as his daughter and daughter in law respectively. This is by far the weakest part of the script, with both turning in great work with characters who are essentially ‘spunky’ and ‘worried’ and little else. Likewise, Alejandro Edda’s T.T. is a great side character who ends up exactly where you’re worried he will.

The good news is the rest of the cast get a lot of fun things to work with. Josh Lucas’ Dylan Tucker is one of the most interesting, difficult characters in the franchise’s history. Borderline (at the very least) racist and deeply unsure of the world he wants to raise a child in, there’s a long stretch of the movie where neither Dylan, or you, quite know where his loyalties lie. It’s smart writing, and acting, from one of Hollywood’s most unusual leading men and I’m sorry it’s not garnering more attention.

I’m sorrier still that a movie where the leads are a childless slightly older couple who have no manufactured drama but do have each other’s backs isn’t getting more praise because it is so refreshing. Adela and Juan, who we first meet crossing as illegal immigrants, are the most interesting protagonists the series has ever had. Adela, played by Army of the Dead’s excellent Ana de la Requera, is especially good here. Adela is idealistic, kind and no one’s fool and the events of The Forever Purge show us exactly why without ever being exploitational. De la Reguera has natural presence and calm and one of the movie’s best moments comes late on when her character is in jeopardy and it just gets her mad. She’s much better treated here than in Army of the Dead and I hope this open the door to more work for her and Tenoch Huerta too.

Huerta, as Juan, is the mirror of Lucas’ Dylan Tucker and, again, hard to look away from. He’s cautious, resentful where Adela is open and there’s a cleverly realized moment where his refusal to practise his English mirrors Dylan’s refusal to let his child learn Spanish. Huerta has the same calm as de la Reguera but it’s backed up by seething rage that the movie explores with clear eyes and honesty. The ending especially sees him make his peace with the new world, and the choices that led him and others there in a surprising and powerful way.

That new world is also where the series ends: with America in flames but resisting the ugly sociopathy at its core. It’s satirical, certainly, but it’s also heartfelt and resonant, especially in this hellish timeline we’re all trapped in. A line about New Yorkers bonding together to resist plays as a joke until multiple other cities are mentioned. Nothing is resolved in the big picture even as the main characters rest, but the battle is ongoing. In the world of the Purge that’s all you can hope for. Sometimes it feels like that here too.

Verdict: Clever, angry, funny and nuanced this is a probable bow out (a sixth movie has been noodled with but nothing more as yet) for one of the unsung heroes of modern dystopian fiction. Interesting if you’re new to the series and impressive if you’ve followed it all the way along. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart