The Purge Election Year: 10 Things You Didn’t Know

Photo via Universal/Blumhouse

10. The franchise was blamed on a real life killing spree during post-production

It’s not news to report that movies have been getting blamed for real-life violence. It’s been happening for decades, and will never stop as long as violence exists in films. So it wasn’t exactly shocking when a murderer used The Purge movies as an excuse to apparently go on a killing spree.

In May of 2016, less than two months before The Purge: Election Year would be released in theaters, a teenager shot and robbed several people in Indianapolis, resulting in the deaths of three people. With witness claims that the man said he was “purging” to describe his crimes, and police reporting a recovered text message on the assailant’s phone stating as much, the film series took some of the blame for the incident.

Ultimately, the story fell to the wayside rather quickly, and it didn’t affect the release or box office performance of The Purge: Election Year. People probably just forgot about it by the time the movie came out, or just found it ridiculous to blame the film series on the actions of a nutcase to begin with. Millions of other people saw the films as well, and there have been no similar cases.

Next: An odd feat for a horror series