Is The Purge Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 5 out of 10. It is a home invasion inside one house, with a few jump scares.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
5 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
Expect to check the front door lock once before bed.
DOG
Dog: fine
none, because there is no dog in the film.
Ruling: Fine for most adults and tougher teenagers, and best watched with someone else in the house.
The Purge runs 85 minutes. In 2022, for twelve hours a year, crime is legal and emergency services are off. The Sandin family lives in a gated community in L.A., and the father sells security systems for a living, so they feel prepared.
The premise, briefly
On the one night a year when all crime is legal, a security salesman locks his family inside a house protected by his own system, and a wounded stranger asks to be let in.
How much do you want to know?
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The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
James and Henry die. Zoe kills the gang leader, and Mary makes the neighbors who turned on her family leave. Mary, Zoe and the stranger are alive when the sirens end the Purge at 7:00 a.m.
The scene you're dreading
The break-in, in the later part of the story. After the masked gang gets inside, James kills several of them and the gang leader stabs him. Then the neighbors step in, kill the gang, and reveal that they hate the Sandins.
The dog
There is no dog in The Purge.
It's a siege on one family's house, with jump scares and a turn where the neighbors become the threat.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
The salesman who sold his neighbors the same system
In 2014, after an economic collapse, the New Founding Fathers of America win office and invent the Purge. Once a year, from 7:00 p.m. on March 22 until 7:00 a.m., crime committed with weapons below a certain class is legal and emergency services are off. By 2022 unemployment is at 1% and crime is at a record low, and many people credit the Purge, though some point out it mostly affects the poor. James Sandin sells security systems, including to several neighbors, and lives in an affluent gated community in L.A. with his wife Mary, their fifteen-year-old daughter Zoe and eleven-year-old son Charlie. At dinner he announces he is now the company's top salesman, tells the family the system will protect them, and takes a pistol out of the gun safe just in case. Charlie dislikes the whole idea, and James tells him the Purge works because people need somewhere to put their anger. Just before it starts, James turns the system on and metal plates cover every door and window. Zoe's older boyfriend Henry has already slipped inside, and he plans to confront her father about disapproving of him.
Charlie opens the door for a stranger, then the boyfriend gets a gun
On the security monitors Charlie spots a wounded man outside, begging for help. He turns off the security system and lets him in. James turns it back on and points a gun at the stranger. Henry comes downstairs with his own pistol and tries to shoot James, and James fires back and hits him. Henry dies on the floor of Zoe's bedroom. In the confusion the stranger disappears somewhere inside the house, and the family is left with a body and a loose intruder.
A masked gang asks for the stranger first
A group of armed young adults in masks arrives on the front lawn. Their leader speaks to the family through the door camera and demands they hand over the stranger, whom the gang wants to execute during the Purge. If the Sandins refuse, he says he will kill them too. James then has to admit that the security system looks impressive but cannot hold up against a sustained attack. The family captures the stranger to turn him over, then changes its mind and decides to defend him and themselves. This is the scene to brace for, and it comes once the gang is inside. James kills several gang members, and then the gang leader stabs him.
The neighbors save the day and bring their own opinions
The Sandins' neighbors arrive and kill the gang members, and they free Mary, who two Purgers were holding down. Zoe kills the gang leader, and James dies of his wounds. Mary starts thanking the neighbors, but their leader, Grace Ferrin, says the neighbors hate the Sandins, because they think the Sandins got rich at their expense. The neighbors capture the family and prepare to kill them. James, the original target, has already died, so they settle for everyone else. The stranger comes back, kills one of the neighbors and holds Grace hostage until the Sandins are free. Mary stops him from killing the others. She says the family will sit tight until the sirens go off, and she refuses the neighbors' demands.
The ending, explained
Mary stops the stranger from killing anyone else and says the family will sit tight until the sirens go off, and refuses what the neighbors demand. At daybreak Grace tries to take charge again. Mary breaks her nose with the butt of a shotgun, slams her face into a table, and says again that nobody else is going to be killed. When the sirens sound at 7:00 a.m., Mary makes her former friends leave and thanks the stranger for his help. James and Henry are dead. Zoe, Mary and the stranger live. The closing news reports call it the most successful Purge so far, mention that weapons and security sales are lifting the stock market, and include a man saying he lost his patriotism when his sons died the night before.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: none, because there is no dog in the film.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is The Purge scary?
The Purge is a 5 out of 10, with medium dread that lasts a night. It is a siege inside one house, with jump scares and a gang at the door.
How does The Purge end?
Zoe kills the gang leader, James dies of his wounds, and Mary forces the neighbors to leave when the sirens end the Purge at 7:00 a.m. Mary, Zoe and the stranger survive.
Does the dog die in The Purge?
There is no dog in The Purge.
Is there a post-credits scene in The Purge?
No. The Purge has no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
Why do the neighbors turn on the Sandins in The Purge?
Grace Ferrin and the other neighbors hate the Sandins because they believe the family got rich at their expense. James sold several of the neighbors the same security system.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of The Purge is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You don't have to spend a night locked in the Sandins' house to know how The Purge ends. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur the rest of the internet's horror for you.
