Jason Blum has slowly become the king of horror films, thanks to his ability to produce a large amount of crowd-pleasing flicks, most of which spawn large franchises, and all of which are usually cheap, and usually wind up becoming profitable. A gander on IMDB shows that most of his career has been spent on horror flicks (with the odd exceptions of “The Reader” and “Tooth Fairy”), with many like “Paranormal Activity”, “Insidious” and “Sinister” having made a sizable impact on pop culture. Universal is likely hoping that “The Purge” follows those three flicks in terms of box office, though as for the quality of the flick itself, it’s really not that special, though admittedly far from horrible.

James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) has spent his whole life selling security systems to his neighbors and making a large amount of cash on such sales. His wife, Mary (Lena Headey) and two kids, Charlie (Max Burkholder) and Zoey (Adelaide Kane), live a luxurious life, in a society that seems idyllic and perfect, a fact that many believe is due to The Purge; a twelve hour period during the year when all crime is legal. While James and his family feel that they’ll be safe during this hectic night, a strange visitor soon brings trouble and danger, the kind that could lead to violence of a indescribable kind.

Sci-fi and horror flicks have an interesting knack for being able to comment on events actually occurring in society in a satirical fashion. “The Purge” decides to tackle the subject of the roles of the rich and the poor in modern day society, an easy target that “Tower Heist”, “The Dark Knight Rises” and countless others have all tackled. Here, the poor are noted as being many of the victims of “The Purge”, due to not having any ways to protect themselves from their psychopathic attackers. To boot, the main antagonist (who reminded me of Loki from “Thor” and “The Avengers”) is a classic snobby rich fellow, who I was surprised wasn’t supplied a monocle to complete the caricature.

All kidding aside, it’s a good message, showing the poor’s struggles in a dystopian and violent society that still is able to remind us of the struggles those in poverty suffer every day. This kind of thoughtful commentary is what separates “The Cabin In The Woods” from the infinite “Friday the 13th” sequel–not to mention the movie’s thought-provoking premise that feels different from yet another horror film centering around unkillable demons.

Unfortunately, the film doesn’t have the same kind of intelligence in it’s scripting department. In fact, the script’s dialogue will likely cause more nightmares than any violent imagery in the film itself. A lovey-dovey conversation between a teenage couple in the beginning of the film was painful to watch, as was watching some the incredibly stupid decisions these characters make throughout their adventure. Seriously, the amount of times the daughter in this family randomly disappears reeks of lazy screenwriting, as if they were running out of ways to keep the conflict in the film going. Also, the inconceivable amount of effort the villains in this movie use to catch a single homeless person (which includes bringing unseen, though implied to be large, trucks in order to break down doors) redefines overkill.

I did enjoy Ethan Hawke as the father of the film, already having done this whole horror schtick last year in “Sinister” (another Jason Blum flick!). Lena Headey, after playing the horrific baddie in “Dredd” last year gets to play the heroic mother here, although towards the end she doesn’t get to do much except shriek at the masked villains. And as the villain that reminded me of Loki, Rhys Wakefield gets to handle the juxtaposition of talking like a gentleman while committing sadistic acts of violence, and he does it with gusto. All these actors, along with the rest of the cast, are saddled with the task of working with this script’s mixture of a fine concept and terrible dialogue, a difficult mix for these actors to work with. All things considered, they fare like the movie itself; fine, but far from extraordinary.

“The Purge” is an OK film, hindered by a script that is full of terrible dialogue, stupid characters and a third act that winds up becoming not much more than just sketches of the main characters violently exacting revenge on their evil intruders. It is different from most horror flicks, which is a major plus, and the cast does seem to be having a good time, not to mention there are quite a few frightening moments that work perfectly. I found it to be merely OK, but I’m sure many will find it to be the bee’s knees, the film will become ultra successful and Jason Blum will run off into the sunset with tons of cash and a new franchise.