‘Purge 4’ Finds a Director in ‘Burning Sands’ Helmer Gerard McMurray

The Purge is far from over, given that it’s one of the most successful horror-thriller series conceived in recent years. With a fourth installment on the way, Blumhouse set to work a few months ago to find a new director for the project, and has settled on Gerard McMurray, who made his feature debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival with his fraternity hazing drama Burning Sands.

Variety notes that The Purge 4 doesn’t yet have a subtitle, so we’re not sure what the subject of the movie is going to be. Since the first Purge, they’ve all operated under something of a theme, with Anarchy introducing an anti-Purge group of vigilantes while Election Year effectively ended the Purges with the election of a new president. But the story doesn’t quite end there, as the New Founding Fathers of America, who came up with Purge Night, have been staging violent uprisings in protest. A fourth movie makes plenty of sense.

McMurray’s Burning Sands, which chronicles the brutal hazing practices of an all-black university, was swiftly acquired by Netflix after its Sundance premiere this year. He was also one of the producers of Ryan Coogler’s fantastic Fruitvale Station. McMurray is no stranger to stories of violence, but also sounds like he’ll do more for the fourth Purge movie than make it just another home invasion slasher horror. The Purge universe is weirdly fascinating, and it’s exciting that Blumhouse has brought on such a promising new director.