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“Things like this aren’t supposed to happen in our neighbourhood!” says Ethan Hawke as masked intruders smash into his family’s house to murder the drifter his son has let inside.

But then this is America 2022, a “nation reborn” which lets its citizens ‘purge’ themselves every year with one night of random violence.

The Hunger Games -flavoured rhetoric gives a futuristic sheen to what’s really another spin on Assault On Precinct 13 , with Hawke and wife Lena Headey debating whether or not to placate psycho preppie Rhys Wakefield or try and hold the fort Straw Dogs -style.

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James DeMonaco’s blood-splattered thriller begins well before expiring slowly from multiple improbabilities.

Neil Smith is a freelance film critic and writer who contributes regularly to Heat, SFX and Screen International. He's a long-time member of the London Film Critics’ Circle and was a contributing editor at Total Film for many years.