The Purge Film Analysis

The purge:

What genre indicators are there?

From the opening scene the audience are able to tell that the film will be a horror by the music that is used. The music that is used is diegetic because the character in the scene has put on the music. In the opening scene you can also see a masked man sat on his chair whilst he was two tortured people suffering and gagged on the sofa opposite him, this automatically indicates that bad things have happened and are going to happen.

What questions are the audience encouraged to ask themselves about the character/ narrative?

What the audience can see in the opening clip, they are encouraged to think that the masked man is going to be the main character as there are a lot of extreme close ups on his face and he is watching the two people who have been hurt suffer. This also makes the wonder what else will happen and if the two people will die. The audience will also question why they have been hurt and why the masked man has targeted them. The audience may also question what the guy behind the mask looks like or who it is as you do not get to see him without it on.

What do we find out?

In the opening scene we find out that the twelve hour purge has already started because of the two suffering, slowly dying people sat opposite the guy on the sofa. The man with the mask on his face also says in the clip whilst the music was playing that “This is my purge playlist” which also indicates the purge has started.

How is music or ambient sound used and what mood does it create?

The music that they have used in the opening scene of ‘The Purge’ is diegetic. The audience could find the music they have used quite confusing because they have used an upbeat track and the masked character is dancing to it in his chair whilst the other two sit there in pain. The music makes it seem almost as if the man in the mask was making a joke out of the situation or as if he was oblivious to the suffering that was going on.

What camera shots stand out for you and what is the affect on appeal?

There are a lot of extreme close ups in the opening scene to this film, this is good because it builds tension and gives the audience a good idea of the different emotion and an understanding on what is happening in that scene. They use an extreme close up on the two people who have been tortured to show the audience the emotion and expression on their face. It is almost as if this shot makes you feel the characters pain as you can clearly see the distress on their faces. There is also a medium shot on the masked man so the audience could see how he was behaving and from this shot you were able to see that he was very relaxed and not bothered that the two people in front of him are hurt. The cameral also slowly pans up to the mans iPod docking station as he is changing the songs.