In a once desperate, crime-wracked America, the Annual Purge is considered an effective solution. Each year for a 12-hour period, all crime is deemed legal and all law enforcement is suspended. People think of it as a way to relieve hate, and so far it has worked. Criminal activity is at a record low. This is the setting for the thriller/horror “The Purge.”

Produced by the people who brought you “Sinister” and “Paranormal Activity,” they seem to have ghost movies down to a T. But what about realistic fiction? This film could get by on its concept alone, but the execution was its downfall.

The story begins in an affluent town in America on the night of the Purge. A family – father (Ethan Hawke), mother (Lena Headey), and two children – is getting ready for the Purge to begin. They calmly lock down their house with high-tech security and prepare to wait the Purge out. But their plan goes terribly wrong when the boy lets in a man seeking refuge. The stranger attracts a masked, murderous crowd that wants to kill this runaway stranger. They want him handed over or they will attack the house and kill everyone.

This shoddy and dreadfully uninteresting tale has not only a lack of good characters but also a lack of plot. The only thing this movie offers is moral decisions and life-or-death situations. It's intense in some scenes, but the cheap jump-scares and gore don't add to the excitement.

The lack of logic and reason is a huge disappointment. The idea is great – a scenario where basically anything could happen – but the movie is so predictable that the first five minutes could spoil the ending. Not even Hawke's performance could save his character. This is a useless horror flick that's good for a one-time laugh but won't find a place in my DVD collection.

This film is rated R.