The Purge: Anarchy

Writer/director James DeMonaco returns to expand on the provocative premise for 2013's The Purge - that for 12 hours on one day each year, all crime goes without punishment. But whereas the first film was essentially a watchable siege movie (in the mould of Assault on Precinct 13), this incident-packed sequel has more in common with the run-for-your-life thrills of The Warriors and Hard Target. Also, instead of one well-to-do family under attack, here it's a soon-to-separate couple, a single mum and her daughter, and a tooled-up loner (Frank Grillo) who are on the downtown streets at the mercy of paramilitaries, masked biker gangs and other loons eager to "release the beast". There's a lot more action, the rich v poor subtext is writ large (the wealthy have a private club for hunting and slaughtering victims) and Grillo (Captain America: the Winter Soldier) proves he's got what it takes as a taciturn tough guy. By the end, it's evident that an intriguing idea might be stretching itself a little too far, though that hasn't stopped the release of second sequel The Purge: Election Year in 2016.