Movies
[BD Review] ‘The Purge: Anarchy’ is Exactly What You Want It to Be!
James DeMonaco’s The Purge: Anarchy is almost exactly the movie general audiences had in their head when they became intrigued by the premise of The Purge over a year ago. And intrigued they were. Fascinated, even. The word “purge” has now taken on an additional meaning in our vernacular despite the fact that the first film wasn’t especially memorable, trading in much of its promise in favor of a serviceable home invasion thriller.
But I’m glad that the initial Purge was a hit, because now we have a sequel that so fully embraces the lunacy of its central conceit its almost impossible not to find it just a little bit satisfying. Is it perfect? No. There’s some goofiness here and there (such as a character trying to engage someone she’s never met in a socioeconomic discussion during a gunfight), but Anarchy never rests on its laurels in its attempts to explore the urban jungle of a purge night via three intersecting stories. Bonus? The film is boldly political. Especially for a summer “blockbuster” (even if it only makes $50 million its return on investment will still trump every wide release this season). I’m not comparing this movie to Snowpiercer in the quality department, but if you showed the two films to an objective sociology class they could easily diagnose the United States as an entity grappling with staggering economic inequality issues.
Getting away from the admirable all caps surface text, The Purge: Anarchy knows exactly the right tone to strike. Severe, gory and (this is a compliment) full of silly swagger, the movie marches through the chaotic streets of downtown Los Angeles putting its protagonists (a revenge-bent Frank Grillo chief among them) through the ringer. While there’s a bit too much in the way of convenient circumstance to fully suspend your disbelief, that hardly impinges upon the entertainment factor. Even when the second half of the film’s third act devolves from striking to rote, it’s kind of hard to complain. After all, purging is sometimes a little sloppy.
In pretty much the best of ways, The Purge: Anarchy is exactly the movie you think you’re signing up for when you buy your ticket. If you walk out of it unsatisfied, you might want to reconsider what you were expecting from such a thing.
The Purge: Anarchy is out on Friday, July 18th.
This week kicked off with the release of hippo horror movie Hungry at home, and four more horror movies have arrived for at-home viewing as we head into the final weekend of June.
Here are the new horror movies that released on Friday, June 26, 2026!
The Halloween season can no longer be contained to the months of September and October, with “Summerween” becoming a thing in recent years. Essentially, it allows for Halloween to bleed into the warmer Summer months, and the first ever Summerween movie has arrived.
The Asylum released Summerween onto Digital outlets today.
In the film from writer/director Ryan Ebert, “On Summerween, a former circus clown escapes a mental institution to return to his abandoned mansion and hunt the teens partying there.”
Cole Chapleski, Chase Breithoff, Logan Roe, Sophia Sabol, and Clint Morrison star.
Director Ryan Ebert is the man behind a string of recent indie horrors we’ve covered, including Shark Side of the Moon, The Jolly Monkey, Jurassic Reborn, and Predator: Wastelands.
A witchy coming-of-age story from Dark Sky Films, Camp is now playing in select theaters.
Check your local listings to find a theater near you.
Camp is from writer-director Avalon Fast (Honeycomb, The Serpent’s Skin).
“Emily is the root cause of two devastating tragedies very early in her life, and she feels the weight of these accidents as though cursed. At her father’s suggestion, she takes a position at a summer camp for troubled youth to ease her guilt. When Emily arrives, she is welcomed by the other counselors, who accept her as she is and surround her with peace and forgiveness.
“As Emily begins to believe in a new kind of life, she starts to hear a voice whispering from deep in the woods — one that urges her to go home, and one that may be impossible to ignore.”
The film stars Zola Grimmer in her screen debut alongside Alice Wordsworth, Cherry Moore, Lea Rose Sebastianis (Castration Movie Part 1 & 2, In A Violent Nature), Ella Reece, Austyn Van de Kamp (This Too Shall Pass), Sophie Bawks-Smith (Honeycomb), Izza Jarvis, and Aiden Laudersmith.
Producers Tyler Perry and Jason Blum have joined forces for Peacock Original Strung.
The film is now streaming only on Peacock.
“A talented violinist takes a prestigious job as a music tutor for the gifted daughter of an influential and enigmatic family. As she becomes entangled in their opulent world, unsettling secrets begin to surface, forcing her to question her safety, her dreams, and even her sanity.”
Malcolm D. Lee (Scary Movie 5, Space Jam: A New Legacy) directs from a script written by Alan B. McElroy (Wrong Turn, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers).
Chloe Bailey (“Swarm“), Lynn Whitfield (Jaws: The Revenge), Lucien Laviscount (“Scream Queens”), Anna Diop (Us), Coco Jones (Vampires vs. the Bronx), Langley Kirkwood (“Banshee”), and Romy Woods star in Peacock’s Strung.
Produced by Diablo Cody, director Meredith Alloway’s Forbidden Fruits brought a new coven of witches to the big screen earlier this year, and it’s now streaming on Shudder.
Lola Tung (“The Summer I Turned Pretty”), Victoria Pedretti (“The Haunting of Hill House”), Alexandra Shipp (Tragedy Girls), Gabrielle Union (Breaking In), and Emma Chamberlain star in Forbidden Fruits, released by IFC and Shudder.
Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges the group’s ‘girl boss’ ways, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.
“Forbidden Fruits grabbed me by the neck the very first time I read it,” Diablo Cody said. “It’s one of the craziest, most creative, beautifully bonkers projects I’ve ever worked on.”
Meagan Navarro writes in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Forbidden Fruits may not necessarily forge new terrain in the teen satire space, but Alloway brings so much style and energy to her well-cast single-location stage play adaptation for the Gen Z crowd.”
The film is an adaptation of playwright Lily Houghton’s stage play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin and Through Her We All Die. Alloway and Houghton co-adapted.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by HUNGRY.
All aboard the swamp tour from hell – this hippo isn’t playing games…
HUNGRY is now available on Digital. Watch it now!
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