What happens when an enterprising senator attempts to bring an end to the Purge? That's the question at the heart of The Purge: Election Year, the third entry in James DeMonaco's The Purge series. Lost veteran Elizabeth Mitchell plays Senator Charlie Roan, a rising political star who's campaigning on a promise to stop the violent annual bacchanal after it ruined her family; Frank Grillo returns as the Purge veteran tasked with protecting her. Will she make it through a pre-election Purge alive? No one knows! Anything goes! That's the whole point of the Purge!
The series' blend of standard-issue horror and cutting social commentary has made it a surprising success. When Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey battened down the hatches in 2013's The Purge, the movie ended up making almost $90 million against a relatively tiny budget, and 2014 sequel The Purge: Anarchy was an even bigger success. (It played a little better with critics, too.) It looks like The Purge: Election Year is going to tackle political extremism, religious fundamentalism, and the socioeconomic inequality that underpins the series, and it'll do so with a juicy Independence Day release date. It will probably make me cry. You can check it out in theaters on July 1st.