Gear Up For USA’s ‘The Purge’ at SDCC’s Purge City

On Tony Gwynn Boulevard in San Diego, fans eager to see USA Network‘s TV event The Purge can get a taste of what’s to come at Purge City.

Despite what you might expect, though, Purge City is not a haunted house-style attraction where masked bandits pop out to scare you. On the contrary, Purge City is…well, it’s a party supply store.

With a logo reminiscent of Party City, Purge City takes up the bottom floor of a retail space, and is filled with a combination of “floor model” product that is not for sale and other merchandise that can be purchased with “Purge bucks,” which you can get at the store.

Merchandise includes t-shirts, hats, bumper stickers, pins, magnets, and copies of the fictional 28th Amendment to the Constitution, which established The Purge in the world of the series.

[Start Gallery Call-to-Action Key=7510]Other items you can check out in the store include cleaning supplies, barbed wire, coffee mugs, and home security systems.

The latter included a large dollhouse/diorama where an employee of Purge City will walks audience through their anticipated Purge-related security needs, and what might be the best choice for them.

There is also a selection of Purge greeting cards so that you can express your feelings about the holiday — and things like cleaning supplies and a 12-hour candle that will burn from the start of The Purge until the whistle blows the next morning.

You can see some photos from Purge City in the attached image gallery.

The activation, operated by USA Network, is open every day from now through Sunday (or, presumably, while supplies on swag last).

“I’d say it’s 70, 65 percent Purge Night and then 30 percent flashback,” series creator James DeMonacorecently said. “We follow four what-seem-to-be separate storylines of people going out on the evening and experiencing the Purge. The real estate of the 10 hours of the TV allows us to use flashback, where we flashback out of the Purge world, into the regular lives, the non-Purge days, of this future America. We get to see who these people are when it’s not Purge Night and the events that led them to where they are on the particular Purge night that we are following. I think it’s a great device.”

In the series, America’s government has implemented an annual event in which all violent crimes are legal. This 12-hour window is meant to not only allow citizens to tap into their bloodlust that they restrain the rest of the year, but also serves as a means of culling the population, as the poorer members of society can’t afford the supplies to protect themselves.

Understandably, the previous three films have focused mainly on the annual event, with this new TV series allowing the creators new opportunities.