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‘The Purge’ Horror TV Show In The Works [Video]

By Nick Younker
Published on: 10:22 PST, Oct 9, 2016

The Purge is now about more than the future of cinema and politics in horror. It is about to make its way to the small screen for some potentially electrifying television anthology events.

The phenomenon that is The Purge plays on the fears of people who live in the world with the current political climate that already drives fear into the heart of millions of Americans. The Purge franchise also couldn’t have found better timing as well. It is something that some might parallel to having a thriller TV series in the 1980s about Russians attacking Americans with biological AIDS warfare, or even a series in the 1970s about ghosts terrorizing people in a New England house.

The truth is, The Purge has relied on the media and the politicians to do all of the marketing for them. The films have all brought back 15 to 20 times their production budgets and have been so successful that every movie has grossed more than the previous one.

The last installment (Part 3) of The Purge franchise was Election Year and the symbiotic nature of that film played right into the hands of people who are fearing the issues coming out of the November 2016 race for the White House between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

The brainchild behind The Purge franchise, James DeMonaco, has been steadfast and ambitious with his films, and he shows no sign of slowing down his hit movie franchise. As a matter of fact, DeMonaco spoke with Cinema Blend about the possibility of a TV series and his response was in the affirmative.

“The idea of why I like the idea of a maybe 10-hour TV thing on this, the one thing you really can’t do on the films is, just because of mere real estate and time, is you can’t get into the nuance and complexity that would drive someone to commit a terrible act on this night,” DeMonaco told Cinema Blend.

“Whether it’s revenge or out of passion, but what might be interesting in a TV show is with a flashback narrative, if you start on Purge Night but you go back to show how people have gotten to where they are. Where you see a couple that’s gone haywire on this night, but let’s show everything that’s led up to this moment of a husband trying to kill a wife — the cheating or the accusations of cheating or money problems. It will be interesting to show those arcs, those dramatic and complex arcs that get people to where they pick up a gun or a knife and kill someone else. I think there’s something cool that we can do with the real estate of TV – 10 hours, potentially.”

There is certainly a plethora of possibilities that could be derived from a possible TV series for The Purge. One thing that fans might be missing is that this is the first time a possible crossover could happen between spy thrillers and horror. Just consider what happens when the Purge starts at the beginning of the movies. Fans see an Emergency Broadcast on TV that announces the annual commencement of the Purge, and it clearly states that for the next 12 hours, all crime is legal.

The key word there was “12 hours.” If The Purge were to become a serial TV series, they could play it out much like the show 24, where each episode is a “real time” hour from the night of the Purge. It’s a golden opportunity for producers of the show to really cash in on a celebrated theme that originated on Fox television. They only need a Jack Bauer to fill out the roster, which is where Frank Grillo (Sergeant Leo Barnes) comes in.

This would also be a great opportunity for The Purge franchise to show just how the New Founding Fathers came into power. But in the end, it is up to DeMonaco to decide what he wants for the show.

[Featured Image by Universal]

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