The Best Horror Movie To Watch On The Fourth Of July

Michele K. Short/Universal Pictures

James DeMonaco's "The Purge" was released in 2013, and it wasn't a very good movie. It was set mostly inside a large mansion, and told a pretty straightforward home invasion story. "The Purge," however, was undergirded by a solid dystopian concept that was far more intriguing than the film that housed it. 

In the future of 2022, the United States had been taken over by a cabal of extreme right-wing Christian nationalists called the New Founding Fathers of America. Part of this cabal's new vision was to institute an annual tradition called the Purge, which was a 12-hour period wherein many crimes became legal. The idea was that citizens all housed deep, violent fantasies in their hearts, and that they would ultimately be healthier if they were legally permitted to murder others for 12 hours a year. 

That concept was rich enough to spawn a whole horror franchise. Indeed, not only did the the "Purge" film series explore the violent urges within certain people, but it also carefully explored the politics behind instituting such a barbaric policy. Issues of class, and the way minorities and the impoverished tend to be targeted in the Purge are ever-evolving themes throughout the franchise's five movies and TV series to date. 

And the series reached his height in both filmmaking skill and political commentary with 2016's "The Purge: Election Year." If you need a patriotic, all-American horror thriller for this Fourth of July, this is it.

"Election Year" is set in 2040, when the New Founding Fathers are being legitimately challenged by an anti-Purge politician (Elizabeth Mitchell) ... and how they intend to use the Purge to stop her. 

Universal Pictures

The main character of "The Purge: Election Year" is the previously mentioned senator, Charlie Roan, who has been against the idea of the Purge ever since her parents were killed in front of her decades earlier. She is running for president on the platform of abolishing the Purge and restoring sanity to the nation. She is gaining in the polls, and actually seems likely to win, upsetting the New Founding Fathers candidate, Edwidge Owens (Kyle Secor). Edwidge comes up with a fun solution to his "problem." He will suspend the stipulation of the Purge that forbids citizens from assassinating politicians; they had previously been protected from the violence (which is very, very telling). If Roan leaves the country to protect herself, welp, then some people will see her as a coward and not vote for her. For Owens, this is a win-win. 

"Election Year" also zooms in on the plight of a local deli owner named Joe (Mykelti Williamson) who has run out of Purge insurance. The wealthy insurance company owners are happy to price out smaller businesses, or let them be destroyed. This is shockingly similar to the way insurance companies seem to operate in real life. The Purge, we find, has never been about the purgation of unhealthy impulses and always a way to victimize and exterminate poor people and minorities. There are teams of well-armed paramilitary types wandering the streets in several "Purge" movies, and you'll quickly begin asking who they work for. 

"Election Year" reveals the bare-faced wickedness of a seemingly "moral, law & order" government, confirming our suspicions that there is a bleak conspiracy at work. It's as cathartic (and just as cynical) as something like John Carpenter's "They Live."

Universal Pictures

As for why we're naming this as the best horror movie for July 4? Well, it's no coincidence that it released in 2016, during a particularly consequential US election that is directly paralleled by the movie's events. The film's marketing knew this, utilizing the tagline: "Keep America Great."

The corny patriotism at the heart of American politics — as well as the more quietly trumpeted pro-violence, pro-military bloodthirst underneath — was targeted, lampooned, and exploded with "The Purge: Election Year." To quote a character on "The Simpsons," celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it. It's a perfect movie for July 4.

Of course, "The Purge: Election Year" implied that whether there was a legal Purge or not, the violence would continue. Those who want to stay in power are willing to wield violence and mob rule to achieve those ends, regardless of legality.

2021 then saw "The Forever Purge." The New Founding Fathers are back in power, and the Purge is reinstated. White supremacy is now at the forefront of everything. "Forever" was clearly tapping into real fears of what might happen if right-wing powers once again took office.

There is something dark in America's heart, and the "Purge" movies explore it openly, sharply, and with all the satirical edge it can muster. "Election Year" just happens to be the best.