THE PURGE ELECTION YEAR    2.2*****

          This is one of those love it or hate it movies It’s supposed to be a horror movie.. In case you missed the other 2 Purge movies or are unfamiliar with this action/horror franchise….it takes place in the not-too-distant future of 2025, where the NFFA-New Founding Fathers of America-have instituted a yearly 'purge'. On this one day, any crime is legal for 12 hours-sunset to sunrise-with most people preferring murder and often gruesome murder. The only exception is government officials who are exempt..   All 3 movies are written & directed by the same man, James DeMonaco. The first in 2013 and the second in 2014. Basically, the government uses the purge to keep crime and the population under control-pretty much taking out the poor, lower class since the richer people can afford fortresses to hide in or bigger guns to hunt or defend. . In this film the story has  a secret service agent  assigned to protect a Elizabeth, a Senator , who is running to become President on a platform that will eliminate the purge. Her opponent is her opposite; he is a proud NFFA member and wants to continue the tradition of purging. .  NFFA does not want Elizabeth to win so they plot to take her out  during the purge. And to do that, they  amend the purge law to  allow government officials to be subject to being purged.. Open season on everybody! .The Secret Service agent must spend the purge night trying to keep the Senator alive so that she can win the election and get rid of the purge. A sympathetic shop owner  helps them through this deadly obstacle course of death trying to evade the Neo-Nazi mercenaries hired by NFFA plus all the regular purge participants which for the first time includes foreign tourist who have a blood lust..

Given the premise of the Purge movies, the first 2 did a much better job of showing the senseless killing and the horror of innocent people being slaughtered. This “Election Year” sequel however strays from that main premise by, instead,  making the story into a political war… the Pro purge Vs the Anti-purge groups. The actual purge that is taking place has to take a back seat, be secondary , to the political war. The violence is still there but the horror factor is considerably diminished which makes the movie more of a violent action film rather than a horror film. This was a big disappointment for me,. If I’m paying to see a good old gory horror movie, I don’t want to be fooled by a “bait and switch” which happened here.

It is rated "R" for bloody violence and strong language and has a running time of 1 hour & 45 minutes.

Clark