Josh Lucas, Ana de la Reguera and Tenoch Huerta star in a scene from the movie "The Forever Purge." The Catholic News Service classification is O -- morally offensive. (CNS/Universal Pictures)

By Catholic News Service

Attempts to lend dignity to this addition to the bloody franchise that began in 2013 by presenting it as a parable about political divisions in the U.S. fail in any way to disguise its essential brutality.

Director Everardo Gout and screenwriter James DeMonaco put a Mexican American couple (Ana de la Reguera and Tenoch Huerta) and various members of the family for whom the husband works as a ranch hand (Will Patton plays its patriarch) through the usual gauntlet of life-threatening jeopardy unleashed when a dystopian version of the federal government allows a temporary suspension of all laws, an arrangement a host of extremists in this iteration want to make permanent.

Excessive gory violence, about a half-dozen profanities, several milder oaths, pervasive rough and some crude language. The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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