Things got bad in the U.S. So bad that a group of "New Founding Fathers" convinced the country they needed to "purge" the beast inside. Everything -- including murder -- is legal for 12 hours once a year. (Of course government officials are off-limits, they weren't stupid.)

Our protagonist sells home security systems, a lot of them, and his family consumes perhaps a bit too conspicuously for his neighbors' tastes. Not that it stopped them all from buying from him.

The foreshadowing in the movies is only slightly less overt than mine, but it's unapologetically a morality play, so I can excuse that. The real flaw is that it's set too near in the future.

"The Hunger Games" is set in a future where the event has been going on for decades, and they describe years of war leading up to it. "The Purge" is set in 2022, not nearly far enough ahead for people to treat the event with the reverence of longstanding tradition.

That nit aside, it hits all the right notes: The talking heads on TV explaining how the event is good for the national psyche; the talk radio arguments about whether it's all really about the money, about wiping out the unproductive members of society; the constant reassurances from parents to children that "It's hard to understand at your age, but things were so much worse before."

I didn't read any reviews before seeing it, and probably would have passed had I read Ebert - http://www.rogereber...ws/the-purge-2013 But I disagree with him on this. Decent thriller, decent concept ... maybe they'll explore the psychology more in the sequel.