Not since Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers has a film franchise satirically celebrated American jingoism as successfully as The Purge. The Blumhouse Production is, perhaps, even more successful than its spiritual predecessor in tapping into contemporary culture, blending the fictional with the real in ways that are increasingly blurry and disturbing. The First Purge, the latest installment and a prequel film, pulls no punches in directly connecting its marketing message to Donald Trump and his signature American-made hats.

The first trailer for the film is available now, after its poster unveiling just yesterday, but don't expect too much in the way of plot or even cast/character reveals. It's essentially a piece of propaganda meant to whip red-blooded Americans into a frenzy in anticipation of the Purge, and more specifically, to boost the pride that parents should feel when their children want to join in on the event. It's effective, for sure, but one wonders how soon The Purge will cross from fiction into full-blown reality, a concern we never really had for Starship Troopers. That's the scariest kind of horror film there is.

Starring Y’Lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Luna Lauren Velez and Marisa Tomei, Gerard McMurray's The First Purge opens on July 4th, of course.

Check out the first trailer for The First Purge below:

Behind every tradition lies a revolution. Next Independence Day, witness the rise of our country’s 12 hours of annual lawlessness. Welcome to the movement that began as a simple experiment: The First Purge.

 

To push the crime rate below one percent for the rest of the year, the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) test a sociological theory that vents aggression for one night in one isolated community. But when the violence of oppressors meets the rage of the marginalized, the contagion will explode from the trial-city borders and spread across the nation.

 

Coming off the most successful film in the series, The Purge: Election Year, creator James DeMonaco (writer/director of The Purge, The Purge: Anarchy and The Purge: Election Year) returns alongside the producers of this worldwide phenomenon: Blumhouse Productions’ Jason Blum (Insidious series, Get Out, Split), Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ouija series, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and DeMonaco’s longtime production partner, Sébastien K. Lemercier (Assault on Precinct 13, Four Lovers).

 

The First Purge is directed by Gerard McMurray (Burning Sands), working from a screenplay once again written by DeMonaco.

For more on The First Purge, check out these links:

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Image via Universal Pictures
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Image via Universal Pictures