Giant Freakin Robot

The Purge, as a movie, didn’t do much for me. It had an intriguing concept and a cool hook, but didn’t do much with it outside of deliver a standard home invasion yarn. Which is why I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the follow-up, The Purge: Anarchy—came perilously close to making my top ten list for 2014. Hitting theaters almost exactly a year after the first film, many of us expected a hasty, thrown together sequel intended to capitalize on the popularity of the first. While it is definitely that in many ways, it’s better than it has any right to be, and eschews the horror trappings of the first film to deliver a modern day equivalent of a grim, gritty 1970s revenge/exploitation flick that you’d see at a grindhouse. Part three was announced a few months ago, and now it looks like two key players from Anarchy are coming back for another night of chaos, murder, and mayhem.

Michael Kenneth Williams, best known for playing Omar Little on HBO’s The Wire, has a small, but intriguing, part in Anarchy, and he recently revealed that he expects both he and Frank Grillo to be back for The Purge 3. Talking to Collider, he said:

This shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone, but we’re going to get more of the low-budget dystopian horror franchise The Purge as Universal has officially given the go ahead for The Purge 3. The first cost $3 million and made $89 million worldwide, while the sequel, The Purge: Anarchy, which took less than a year from green light to opening day, cost $9 million and brought in $109 million globally. With numbers like that, you definitely understand why they want to churn out more.

Deadline reports that the studio is bringing back writer/director James DeMonaco for The Purge 3, which makes sense since he’s obviously got the world he created down pat, and knows how to turn a movie around quickly and for relatively little money. (Maybe the budget for this one will crack the $10 million mark.) DeMonaco will also reunite with Jason Blum and his Blumhouse Productions, who, again, are also masters of low-budget movies with a high profit margin, like the Paranormal Activity movies.

The more we see from The Purge: Anarchy, the super-fast follow up to last year’s low-budget moneymaker, the crazier it looks. And so far, nothing has looked quite as bat-shit insane as this extended new clip that is essentially an entire scene for you to examine before the film opens on July 18. It should give you a good frame of reference to use when deciding whether or not to go see this in the theater.

Set on the same night at The Purge, Anarchy gives you a wider view of violent, dystopian world where the government legalizes all crime for 12-hours one night every year so society can get out its collective ya-yas. While the first movie was essentially set in a single house in a wealthy suburb, framed as a home invasion story, the follow up shows you have the proverbial other half lives. Instead of focusing on one family, this movie follows three different story threads from deep within the inner city.

The Purge: Anarchy looks to be that rarest of animals, the sequel that is actually better than its predecessor. Despite the fact that it took just a hair over a year to get approval, knock out a script, shoot the sucker, and get it all into movie theaters worldwide, the closer we get to the July 18 release, the better this looks. And since we’re only a day over two weeks away, that hype machine is churning at full speed, knocking out trailers, TV spots, clips, and posters, posters, posters, including this new collection of six one-sheets and a banner.

The Purge: Anarchy is a movie that I wasn’t initially very interested in, let alone excited about. The first Purge produced a tepid reaction, the sequel was originally slated to appear almost exactly one year after the first without being previously green lit and felt rushed, and the generically ominous name didn’t do anything to sweeten the deal. But a funny thing happened, as we’ve crept closer and closer—and the release date got pushed back a little bit—this has become a movie that I’m actively looking forward to, and this new behind-the-scenes look, and two new clips, only serve to heighten that anticipation.

Anarchy doesn’t look like high art, not at all, but over time it has come to resemble those grim, hard-boiled revenge thrillers from the late 1970s and early 80s, which is a subgenre I hold near and dear to my heart. You don’t get that kind of low-budget, vengeance fueled action in theaters all that often anymore—these days this sort of film usually goes direct to video—and when you throw in a dystopian twist, you have my attention.

The more than comes out about The Purge: Anarchy, the more excited I get to see it. What I initially feared was a rushed—less than a year from announcement to theater—sequel intended to capitalize on the success of the low-budget The Purge, has started to look pretty badass. There’s a definite gritty, 1970s revenge-thriller vibe, and when you throw in a few dystopian notes, a touch of Running Man, and a little Judgment Night, you have my full attention. And this latest trailer is even crazier than everything we’ve already seen.

While The Purge was essentially a contained home-invasion story with limited locations and cast, Anarchy opens up the playing field and provides a wider view of the world. Instead of focusing on a single family and place, you get to experience what happens in the city when all crime is legal for one night. That’s the general conceit of these films, that in the near future crime is so out of control that the government sanctions a 12-hour period where you can do whatever you want and embrace all of your most base desires with no legal ramifications. And apparently venting in this manner works. Who knew?