The Purge: Anarchy, this summer’s crazy horror-thriller out today, asks an age-old question that we’ve all lost sleep pondering: What would you do if the U.S.A. was allowed 24 hours of consequence-free crime? The answer that the film provides is that everyone would go around murdering people. This answer wasn’t quite good enough for us. Wouldn’t some people settle for stealing a big screen TV and a package of steak? Perhaps others would just want to open up to 120 mph on their favorite freeway? We went to Purge: Anarchy’s L.A. press day on a mission: to get a better sense of what would happen during a real-life purge.
Not only did we interview the film’s stars Frank Grillo and Zach Gilford about what they would do during a purge, but Complex correspondent Brendan Gallagher actually got to experience a little bit of a purge himself. Along with interviews, Gallagher was treated to “breakout experience” that was half community-theater-haunted-house and half Myst-like riddle quest. The only thing he learned from the breakout experience? Actresses playing bound and gagged purge victims don’t like it if you laugh when they’re trying to stop you from being purged. He was punished for finding humor in the whole thing by being forced to stick his hand in a prop toilet. Needless to say, this didn’t put him any closer to finding out the reality of a purge.
Thankfully, Gilford and Grillo provided the rest of us with some insight regarding what they would do during a purge and how they think the real world would handle an unmitigated 24-hour crime spree. Watch the video to find out how they would purge.
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