The Urge To Purge 'The Purge: Anarchy' From My System.

God is dead. Or a chav. Or something.

So immediately after seeing "The Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes' I made the mistake of seeing 'The Purge: Anarchy'. From the sublime to the ridiculous.

'The Dawn Of The Plane Of The Apes' has a hard hitting anti-gun message. The message of this Purge movie seems to be that violence solves everything - whatever your demographic.

The premise is preposterous but simple: For one night a year in America, all crime is legal for 12 hours. Anything goes, including rape and murder.

Now, I have to confess that I have I haven't seen the original but I fancied seeing this one. It seemed to promise an intriguing mash up of horror, sci-fi, allegory and B movie action thrills. That's right up my street. But, oh dear, nobody warned me it was a film made with all the sensibility of Beavis and Butthead. It's so stupid it's offensive.

Feeling disenfranchised? Want to imagine what it would be like if you could take what you want, do what you want and all with no consequence? This is the wish fulfilment fantasy for you.

Or maybe you're filthy rich? Want to stop those chavs breeding or just get your kicks from imagining what you'd like to do to them if you could? Then this is the wish fulfilment fantasy for you.

Maybe you're feeling politically motivated. Maybe you want to really get rid of that ruling elite by blasting them away. This is the wish fulfilment fantasy for you.

Read the Daily Mail? Believe everything you read? Scared of hoodies? Scared of anarachists in masks? Scared of people who look a bit Goth? Scared of people who crick their neck to the side? You're going to shit yourself when you see this.

Think you like horror films? Like to see something that flirts with the idea of being more graphic and challenging and unrelating than anything you can imagine - but is rated 15 and won't be any of those things. Then this is for you too.

The only way this film can work is for the improbable concept to feel credible. But it never does. If such a thing as purge night existed would you set off on car journey at sunset? Characters in this film do. Would you leave your fuck-off Mad Max vehicle unlocked when you parked it? Of course you would. Would you say "I've got a gun!" thus revealing your hiding spot to the rapist with a gun in your apartment. Every time.

Nothing about the concept feels credible, nothing about the execution is credible and frankly the messy socio-political allusions are all over the place. It should at the very least deliver something on the entertainment level. It's a great idea for B movie. It has an exploitation vibe all over it. I have no problem with that, in fact I welcome it, but this film desperately needed some excess to make it darkly entertaining, or at the other extreme, some realistic grit to make it truly frightening. More than that it needs focus to give it some allegorical weight. But this is like 'They Live' directed by 12 year olds.  It's like 'The Last House On The Left' with Scooby Doo involved. It's just rubbish.