Story by Erick Massoto

Whether you like The Purge film series or not, you can’t deny that the franchise makes a powerful social commentary about violence, legislation, and the lengths that modern society is willing to go to address its problems without actually fixing them. This is the core idea of every movie, and, in an interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, director and screenwriter James DeMonaco made it clear that it’s about to get even more ominous with The Purge 6.

During the interview, DeMonaco told Nemiroff that The Purge 6 will bring a “nightmarish version” of America to life. At the same time, it’s a version that echoes issues that are being presented today and absurd ideas we are forced to gulp down every time we turn on the news or go on social media. DeMonaco said:

“‘Purge 6’ is my way of looking at the country now. I grew up watching ‘Logan’s Run’ and ‘Soylent Green’ and John Carpenter and George Romero, whose sociopolitical messaging was within the films. They were smuggling ideas into the film. So for me for 6, I was extrapolating on the discord and taking it to its furthest, as far as you can take that idea of what’s going on, I feel, in the country and the political landscape. And it’s a broken America. We’re remapping. [‘The Purge 6’] is about the remapping of America based on ideology, sexuality and religion, so that the states are broken down. You have your Black state, you have your gay state, you have your white evangelical state. And it’s really a broken country.”

As the interview progressed, DeMonaco went further and commented that he thinks it’s “strange” that people like Republican politician Marjorie Tyler Greene wish modern America would be divided into groups in order to diminish dialogue and conflict. He said: “What’s so strange is that Marjorie Taylor Greene — I’m not gonna say more than her name there — recently wished for an America like that, which to me would be the most nightmarish version. It goes against everything that America stands for.” DeMonaco explains that he “grew up in New York so the cliche of the melting pot is true, and that’s how I’d like to see our country represented, by many faces and different religions and sexualities.” Unfortunately, “She doesn’t see it that way. So there is part of the body politic that doesn’t want that, and that’s what Purge 6 is,” explains the writer/director. DeMonaco caps it off by saying that his next movie will showcase the chaos of a house divided:

“That’s what Purge 6 is. It is this kind of broken America down in this remapping, and then they picked one state that purges still so that’s where it takes place.”

The Purge 6 is currently in early development, with Frank Grillo expected to return to the franchise. Check out Nemiroff’s interview with DeMonaco in the player above and you can watch the trailer for The Purge: Election Year down below.