Lighting Techniques In The Film 'The Purge: Anarchy'

The savagery human beings fall into when there are no rules is shown in the movie, ‘The Purge: Anarchy”, through the use of lighting, color palette, and sound. About thirty minutes into the movie Eva and Cali’s luck runs out when a group of men dressed in all black and heavily armed enter their home. Both women are taken from the sanctuary of their apartment and dragged to a white semi-truck waiting outside. At the same time, the sergeant is outside in his car watching the whole ordeal take place. In this short scene, the director uses various lighting techniques to show how the characters are beginning to either fall under the savage behavior or becoming victims to it. As the women are being dragged out, and throughout the scene, the director uses low-key lighting to emphasize the shadows lurking in the darkened corners. This style of lighting contributes to the

The use of a backlight on the women as they’re being taken throws them into semi-darkness as they shrink beneath the attack of the soldiers; once again, it gives off a feeling of fear because although the women aren’t purgers themselves they have unfortunately become victims to those who are. Most importantly to the contribution of this theme is the use of side-lighting on the sergeant’s face after deciding to help Eva and Cali. At this point in the film the viewer has an idea of why the sergeant is out on such a dangerous night so it begs the question as to why he’s willing to help two women he doesn’t know when he has his own vindictive agenda. The side-lighting shows the two sides there are to him: the good, protective guy and the bad, vengeful man the death of his son turned him