analysis of purge

1. Opening Sequence Analysis – The Purge
The Purge is a horror thriller directed and written by James DeMonaco it was
released in 2013 and the film is set in 2022. The film starts with an establishing
shot of a man shooting someone and as the victim falls to the ground, the shooter
just runs away. The film then goes on to show different crimes such as group
fighting in the street that is shown by CCTV footage to emphasize the reality of
this as you are just watching it at home on the news.
In the corner of the screen it tells us where and what time the video is taking
place. The date on the CCTV goes up from 2017 to 2021 that tells us that it is an
ongoing tradition. On each scene, the top of the screen says ‘Purge Feed’ which
tells the audience what the purge actually is and this is what happens in those 24
hours.
The next shot is an aerial shot looking down at some lads in a gang fight at a high
angle. All of the scenes are very fast and shows us a lot of establishing shots so
we can see the movement of the people in the shot and the victims getting beaten
which shows how violent the purge is and gives us an overall image of what the
movie is about. The next shot is a slow zoom and a canted frame angle that
shows criminals running away.
Nearly all of the clips shown are high angle shots because of the CCTV
replication as all of the clips are based outside. The use of CCTV makes the
audience believe they are truly seeing recorded events from surveillance
cameras. This helps to shock and engage the audience from the instance. The
poor quality of the footage could signify a kind of distancing, people are choosing
to not fully acknowledge the horror the audience are seeing on their screens.