The period of the Salem Witch Trials was a chaotic time in America’s history. It’s 1692 in the colony of Salem, Massachusetts. Three young girls started to have psychotic episodes composed of the production of unusual sounds, strange body contortions and violent behavior. After examining them, a doctor came to the conclusion that this was the work of the supernatural. The young girls then accused three women of affecting them with witchcraft and of being actual witches. An all-out witch hunt ensued, causing terror and panic within the town. More than 200 people were accused of witchcraft, and 20 executions followed the accusations.
Now, take this story and replace witches with hackers, the colonials with suburban American citizens, witchcraft with social media and place the entire story under our current political climate. The outcome: a movie called “Assassination Nation.”
From Neon studios, “Assassination Nation” is a political satire that takes a very hyper-realistic look at our country. It’s a story about four wild, carefree high school girls who become the target of an unknown hacker as he attacks their town of Salem. This hacker has been attacking powerful individuals like the mayor by publicly releasing all of their private/secret information and photos online for everyone to see. Once the hacker eventually hacks everyone in town, one of the four girls becomes accused of being the hacker, and chaos runs loose with violence and death at every corner in the streets of Salem.
At first, when I watched the trailer for this film, my immediate thought was that this is just a high school knock-off of “The Purge.” It seemed like the film was trying to take the concept of “The Purge” and apply it to a movie that would appeal to a general teenage audience. However, “Assassination Nation” surprised me. It’s a vibrant, timely film that keeps the audience engaged from beginning to end.
The fact that this movie was a modern day take on the Salem Witch Trials was my absolute favorite thing about the film. I find it intriguing when filmmakers can take a historical event and give an unexpecting twist on it like what James Cameron did with “Avatar,” where he told the story of how Americans stole Native American land, but did it in a science fiction setting with an alien race. Using the events from Salem in 1692 but in a modern day setting with teenagers with sex, drugs and violence was very compelling and extremely relevant.
With respect to the political and social climate our country is in, this movie hits incredibly close to home. The story takes a very nuanced look at the social issues society deals with today such as gender roles and discrimination. It deals with the American hypocrisy. To give an example, the mayor of Salem gets hacked and is revealed to be secretly a homosexual, but as a politician he is incredibly against the LGBT community. It dealt with the fear of this hypocrisy, and the anxiety that the social issues of America creates. It was a very real and grounded script, from writer and director Sam Levinson, that never went too far even though it had the potential of crossing the line.
“Assassination Nation” is a very difficult film to watch in the sense of the graphic content. There is a lot of blood, sex, drugs, violence and language that comes as a shock at some moments. However, since the film is rated R, I wasn’t terribly bothered by it. The film is mainly difficult to watch because of the cinematography. The cinematographer shot this film in such a way to the point where there were multiple scenes happening at once, and this made the film hard to view. It was difficult to make out what was happening, and that completely ruins the movie.
However, the film was cleverly designed. The color palette of the film was extremely patriotic which was fitting given the political themes of the movie. The movie used red, white and blue all over the place including the costumes and sets. They also even used red and blue camera filters and neon lights throughout the entire film, which carefully kept the theme consistent. The costume and set design was very much like the movie “The Purge” in terms of the creepy masks and suburban setting, but there was an edgier quality to it that made it seem fresh.
This is definitely a very head strong, ambitious film. The themes are controversial, and it gives a very extreme perspective on America’s current social and political climate. I wouldn’t say it’s one of the best films of 2018, but I would say it’s very important. Even though “Assassination Nation” may seem like another annoying, gory and violent action film, it shows a lot more promise than expected.
_Edited by Siena DeBolt | sdebolt@themaneater.com_