The Amusement Park

An old geezer wanders around an amusement park for 50 minutes. There's something about it that feels hypnotic and intriguing though. Many of Romero's directorial flourishes and styles are rough and recognisable here, and there's a Horror/Nightmarish vibe to the whole thing. That being said, I kind of needed more from it to give it higher than an alright watch. Not a bad little lost project though, and there's at least a purpose to the whole picture.

5.5/10.

First I have to set this review up. Back in the 80's I was iving in the Village, NYC and going to NYU. On the east side was an old movie theatre called The Variety Photoplays. I think it was built in the early 1900's. It's been featured in a Woody Allen movie and in a horror movie called Varety, which used it as the set.

By the 1980's it had taken a turn and the theatre alternated between straight movies and adult films -- every other week. One day I walked by and there was a poster for this movie outside acclaiming "From the director of Night of the Living Dead!" I had to see it.

The ticket booth was actually a stand alone booth outside of the theatre and the guy inside it was really creepy.

Walk in and to the right was the concession stand which only sold candy and you'd give your ticket to this big heavy bruiser who had a motorcycle chain around his neck (I'm not kidding). I think he was "armed" to protect the women (more on that in a minute).

So I go into the theatre and -- this is the 80's -- the audience was mostly cigar smoking old men. The place stunk of cigars.

You could tell that back in the day this was a beautiful ornate movie theatre, complete with a balcony, mezzanine and orchestra seating.

So I sit down toward the back. Maybe 5 minutes before the film starts, skantily clad girls come walking down the two aisles saying "Last call. Last call." One guy gets up and goes with one of them thru an exit door next to the screen. He never came back. I'm assuming these were "working" gals and hence the bruiser, in case of trouble with the Johns.

Anyway this movie finaly came on and it was pretty short so they followed it with another film that had a splice toward the end and turned into a totally different movie!

What a place!

I had totally forgotten about this movie until it re-surfaced for streaming. It's a weird movie, shot with no money, but still captivating. Made supposedly as a public service sort of film about elder abuse.

How this actually got made under that premise is astounding. I'm surprised the money people didnt sue for getting something they didnt expect.

It's well done, but a bit repetitive, given it's short length.

I also don't consider this a true horror movie. It's a surreal drama for sure, but not horror.

Worth a watch -- especially for those Romero fans out there.

And parentetically, in the 90's the Variety Photoplay was gutted and turned into an off off broadway live theatre, without the for hire glas. It should have been restored and considered a landmark in the area. Today that's gone too and now it's a bunch of condos.

When I first heard George Romero had squirreled away this movie where it couldn't be viewed my first thought was that it was probably awful. In hindsight, this was an understatement.

The Amusement Park comes across as an extended student film that tries to be clever but winds up being both predictable and dull. It doesn't help that the film's introduction basically tells you what you're about to see, making the viewing experience somewhat redundant, and the overblown in-your-face visuals combined with the non-stop cacophonous screaming on the soundtrack makes the 53 minute running time seem like a day and a half.

The "restoration" clearly ran out of money at some point as constant scratches and wildly uneven color balancing totally destroy any concentration the viewer might attempt - not that there's anything to really concentrate on. The bottom line is that it's a bombastic assault of both image and sound that's somehow supposed to indicate that society's elderly are getting a raw deal. And it fails spectacularly in attempting to communicate this sensitive theme.

It makes for nice marketing to imply that the film's financiers found the finished work to be too unsettling, gruesome, horrifying (all of which were used in the ballyhoo trumpeting this film's release,) but in truth it's just not a very good movie and really should've been kept hidden indefinitely.

But, since George's name has a dollar value attached to it and he's no longer a meal ticket to certain people, it's not surprising that this "discovery" was plucked from its dark closet, hurriedly patched together (by the talented colorist of such complex works as Pawn Stars, no less,) and auctioned off to the highest bidder as a "lost" Romero classic.

But the fanboys will still throw money at it because it's "George A. Romero" and they couldn't care less about being bilked as long as their obsession is fed.

The things greedy people do to make money . . it gets no more shameful than this.

In 1973, the late great George A. Romero, was hired to film a short movie about elder abuse. It's goal was to not only give a voice to this rampant problem, but show how important it is to care for seniors. When Romero turned his finished work into the society who had hired him, they were terrified by the film and locked it away. Personally, I see why they didn't want the world to see this horrifying nightmare journey into the world of an old man. It's one part Public service announcement and one part Twilight zone in the most surreal of fashions. I kind of loved this take and Romero's unique horror vision on the subject. At times its Haunting and upsetting and the final moments which recycle back to its beginning is eerie and sad. But at other times it's quite a tedious trek and definitely as low budget and indie as you can get. It mostly looks like a home video shot at an amusement park during a family vacation. That amusement park is however a perfect setting for what turns out to be a great metaphor for life and also serves as a great look at America. The Selfishness, greed and superiority complex of it all. With that being said, I do love being in a world where movies like this can be saved and restored. It now lives on the streaming service "Shudder". Its honestly, a perfect home, for such a creepy P. S. A..

When I first heard this was being released I was excited and the more i heard about it, the more excited I got. And let me say this, it truly lived up to my expectations. It's depressing how something that came out all the way back in 1973 is still relevant. How we mistreat elderly and are so cut to the point with them and not giving them time to think or give them equal opportunities.

The symbolism, from the white suit he wears getting dirtier to elderly people selling of clocks, will burn into your memory. The visuals progressively get more and more distressing.

It truly is the scariest thing Romero has ever directed. Maybe even one of his greatest films.