(re)Search my Trash

<body> <div align="left"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="800" cellpadding="0" height="100%"> <tr> <td width="100" rowspan="3" background="../stylepix/square.gif" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="3"></td> <td width="592" height="1%" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="3"></td> <td width="100" rowspan="3" background="../stylepix/squareright.gif" valign="top">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top" height="99%">   <table border="0" cellspacing="0" align="left"> <tr> <td width="100%">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><img border="0" src="../stills/phantom5x5.gif" width="5" height="5"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%">  </td> </tr> </table> <p>A parallel universe: Humankind has lost its natural roots and has become a genetically engineered race, humans are created in labs, not in wombs, and their brains are programmed to fulfill their designated jobs - and for two reasons: 1) to fight unemployment - if everybody has his or her designated job according to a masterplan, and is trained for it from before birth, how can anybody become unemployed. And 2) to ensure happiness. Everybody's employed, so everybody's happy, right? And since everybody's programmed for his task in life, nobody will have unreasonable ambitions and the like. Oh, and since happiness is all-important to the gouvernment, emotions like love are expressly forbidden - as is questioning authority and the like.<p>All that said, there is of course, dissent, an underground organisation called <i>The Strays</i>, a group that rejects the gouvernment-ordered artificial happiness - and thus the gouvernment hunts them down like dogs.<p>Layla (Sarah Breen) has been designated to be a sex worker, doing porn on a BDSM website, and she has never questioned this (or anything much) has always thought she leads a happy life - until one day during a session, she realizes she can't perform anymore, not so much mentally but physically, and something is soon tearing her down. Eventually, she is arrested and learns that she has been hooked up with a drug by her secret lover Peta (Meda Royall), a drug Peta has told her is a aphrodisiak, but actually it's going to kill her in only a few hours time if she doesn't get more or treatment. The police refuse to offer her either, because Peta is actually a Stray-leader, and Layla is supposed to track her down for the police - since her life depends on it.<p>So with her health rapidly deteriorating from withdrawal symptoms, Layla is thrown back onto the street to find Peta - though Layla hasn't got the first idea how. When Layla is literally on the verge of dying though, Peta picks her up and gives her a fix - but this one doesn't come for free: Peta wants to use Layla as her hitwoman, as a sort of undercover prostitute supposed to drug influential men into submission. Layla, who has never taken any sides, politically, can't, and soon she's on the run from both the police and Peta, but eventually, she learns a bit more about the Strays when spending a night at a Stray comedy, and she is tricked by a TV producer (Michael F Cahill), whom she has actually saved from Peta's drugs - and after being made a monster in one of his shows, she ends up back in an arrest cell, one of those where people are made ready to donate organs. But instead of being cut up for the sake of others, she's brought to the head of the facility - Peta ...<p> <p><b>Purge</b> tells a very fascinating dystopian story the low budget way: So don't expect any big action setpieces, flashy CGI interludes, lavish sets and locations and the like. Instead <b>Purge</b> concentrates on the story as such, on creating a world of its own based on (sci-fi-)logic, and on characters. This is helped by camerawork that might seem a bit too flashy at times, but more often emphasizes on the emotions of film's lead character, her growing paranoia and withdrawal symptoms, to life quite beautifully. Add to this some really nice twists and turns and a thought through surprise ending, and you've got yourself a pretty good movie! <p>  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top" height="1%">  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> currentyear = "2013"; </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language="JavaScript" src="../scripts/endcredits.js"></SCRIPT> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> dosworsdonn(); </SCRIPT> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </body>