-Written by Bryan Miller.
A government program poisons millions. An immune grandfather-granddaughter duo survive, hunted by ruthless scalpers and an official determined to save his son, leading to a fight for survival amidst the chaos.
Population Purge has very little to do with an actual purge, in fact, there is no purging at all. The movie begins in a world that resides after, and I will be honest, it isn’t all that interesting. Brian Johnson, the writer and director of Population Purge, clearly had a vision. When developing it, he had a look and a feel that he wanted for when setting up the scenes. I sort of understand where he was going, but I just feel he missed the mark, though I do not think it is entirely his fault. The film was made with a budget of under $250,000, the daily catering budget for most Marvel movies. Even with that small of a budget, he does develop a tangible dystopian future that, while I do not fully understand, does feel real and look interesting. So, did I like the movie? Meh. It was fine for what it is.
Okay, so, let’s look at the positives.
If you want a movie that screams a dystopian future, well then, this is the movie for you. Every single scene is set in a location, whether it is a crumbling building or an overgrown amusement park, that oozes a collapsing society. I am not exactly certain how Johnson could put together such elaborate locations on such a tight budget. My only assumption is that he designed his story around the places he knew he had, similar to how Robert Rodriguez did El Mariachi. It works really well here and I applaud him for that. The same can be said for his cinematography. I enjoyed the look and feel of the night scenes. I thought they were well lit and really helped to develop the overall mood of Population Purge well, especially with the character of Charlie (Peter Holland).
Well, that's it for the good, now what about the bad?
The premise of the movie makes little sense to me. I am certain there is some logical reasoning behind eradicating the majority of individuals on the planet based on their blood type, but I do not see the reasoning behind it. Okay, maybe you are controlling the population by making blood and blood transfusions necessary, but I still think it is entirely too far-fetched of a scenario. There simply is not enough of an advantage for the government to do this.
Another major issue I had with the movie was the acting. Listen, I get it. This movie was made for less than $250,000, but that fact should have been taken into account when designing scenes specifically meant to evoke some form of an emotional response, but obtaining nothing because they could not properly convey that emotion correctly. This is not a dig against the actors, who clearly give it their all, but there are some things some are just not good for, and for most of Population Purge, acting is definitely it.
My last real gripe with this movie is the title. Yeah, I know, that is petty. But when I first heard of the movie I was hoping for a decent rip-off of The Purge series. It is not and I am still not happy with that. If you are going to have the word “purge" in the film, at least provide some fleeting visions of it, and not just talk about it in the past tense.
All in all, the movie is a low-budget thriller that lacks thrills, emotional depth, and a convincing conflict. It looks really good and makes you feel like you are standing amongst the ruins of a fallen nation while all the main actors have seemingly new clothes and freshly dyed hair. I would say watch if you think the end of the world was near, but even then, would you want this to be your last movie? I don’t think so.
Directed by Brian Johnson.
Written by Brian Johnson & Toby Osborne.
Starring S. Lamar Wilson, Peter Holland, Lyndsey Soto, Rebecca DeRienzo, Ameerah Briggs, etc.
3 Ethan Hawkes Out of 10 = WORTH THE RISK, BUT YOU’VE BEEN WARNED
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