The Amusement Park

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.

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.

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..

THE AMUSEMENT PARK (1975/2019) Shot in 1973 and shelved after a couple of showings in 1975, this George Romero public service film about elder abuse has been rediscovered and remastered.

In many ways, this is a pretty remarkable document. It's a one hour semi-surrealist nightmare about an elderly man (Lincoln Manzel, who also does the introduction) who goes to an Amusement Park. There, he experiences the nightmare rides of his life: Driving, health care, indifferent and even hostile youth, poverty and just general neglect. Not having to adhere to a set 'plot', frees Romero to create some of his most striking scenarios. One bit about the man being shooed away while he's eating crackers and peanut butter and then having rats descend upon his food is as horrifying as anything in his Living Dead pictures. Romero understood that 'reality' is as frightening as anything one could conjure. It's clear why the film was just too odd, too real, for its intended purpose of being a PSA (it was financed by the Lutheran Service Society).

It's not perfect, but THE AMUSEMENT PARK is a glimpse at what Romero could have achieved if he hadn't been pigeonholed. He often played with other styles when making his commercials and industrial films (a Calgon commercial done as a parody of FANTASTIC VOYAGE etc.). This film was shot just before THE CRAZIES and one will notice several of Romero's past and future collaborators in the credits such as Richard R. Rubenstein, the Hinzmans and Michael Gornick. It's a fascinating film that is worthy of reappraisal.

Trivia: Manzel (who was also ion Romero's MARTIN) was 70 when he shot the film. He lived another 36 years! The location, West View Park in Pennsylvania, closed just four years after this movie was made.

This is an educational film about elder abuse shot by Romero in 1973 (early in his career) and not released until a couple of years ago. After seeing it, it's obvious why the film was shelved: it's a pure nightmarish trip, original and fresh, and very educational, but clearly not in the conventional way. Romero has in his career, until the early 80s, a maverick style of filming: very independent, rough and dirty, close to documentalists like Frederick Wiseman, and this is a great almost lost example of that period.