'The First Purge' Director Details Balancing Horrific Fact vs. Fiction in the Genre

The Purge series has often allowed horror fans to escape their realities by watching a dystopic [...]

The Purge series has often allowed horror fans to escape their realities by watching a dystopic action film, yet audiences can't help but notice how similar the events of these films are to the current political climate in America. According to director of The First Purge Gerard McMurray, delivering audiences an exciting action film was important, but so was the inclusion of actual hate groups to serve as a warning for how close America is to fully embracing our hatred and violent tendencies.

"I definitely wanted to make a fun, entertaining film, but also incorporate real political stuff. I try to ground my films into reality, so with this particular one, I definitely wanted to keep it grounded in reality with the realness of the characters, but also have the fun, horror, scary jump scares for people," McMurray shared with ComicBook.com. "It was very important to me that I do that because, again, when it came out, it was a summer movie. It's the middle of the summer, Fourth of July, and I wanted people to still be entertained and not be turned off by any political stuff that they didn't want to really go to the movie and see they can watch it on CNN or FOX News or whatever."

The franchise kicked off in 2013, depicting a society which had passed laws that allowed citizens to commit violent crimes for a 12-hour period every year. The First Purge is the most politically-charged entry into the series, as it explored what drove politicians to move these policies forward and the ways communities responded to the ritual.

"I still wanted to entertain people who would come see this movie, but also lean into the political components, the racial component, and show that rich versus poor, all the things that we see in society. So I kept it real in terms of what was going on in the world," McMurray detailed. "You see Charlottesville in the film. You see KKK in my film. I think that with those things, they were happening during the time when I was shooting this movie. Charlottesville happened. So I leaned into it and I just put it into the film because I thought that was important that we show those things and show real-world horror."

In Charlottesville, Virginia in August of 2017, large groups of white supremacists gathered at a rally, which ultimately turned violent when protestors arrived to oppose the racists. In addition to numerous arrests and physical altercations, Heather Heyer was murdered when a white supremacist drove their car into the crowds. The First Purge incorporated much of the iconography of the racists who attended the rallies.

"To me, those are real horror things, those things happening. That's scary. That's more than a ghost, more than a supernatural thing, real-life horror," the filmmaker noted. "So that was important in showing that in this film, but also keeping that maintain of having fun, scary jump moments, fun, cool music, and also just having a fulfilling ending where audiences feel like we're going to be all right and they feel good about what they just experienced."

Fans can enjoy The First Purge on Digital HD now and on Blu-ray and DVD on October 2nd.

Did you appreciate the ways in which real-world horrors were incorporated into the film? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

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