I love George A. Romero, and he is the undisputed king of the zombie flick, but I can only recommend The Amusement Park for true blue Romero fans who want to check off the list of every movie he’s ever made. If you’re missing one, this is probably it.
A brief history of the 53 minute film that’s currently streaming on Shudder:
The 1973 film about an elderly man who visits an amusement park for the day, but finds himself in a nightmare of an outing, was commissioned by the Lutheran Society to be an educational film. The message was meant to be anti-ageist. Treat old people nicely, you’ll be old too someday.
Of course, not a lot of people were making movies about the older generation in 1973, the height of the Vietnam war. Almost predictably, a then 33 year-old Romero delivered an unacceptable product to the Lutheran Society and the film went unseen. It was “too disturbing,” they said. Too weird.
But two reels of the faded 16mm film were found and given a full 4K restoration, leading to a brief, limited release in 2019, two years after Romero’s death. The restoration, and all of the late director’s legacy is looked after by the George A. Romero Foundation.
Don’t listen to me, I mean, the movie has a 95% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but I couldn’t get past the clumsy editing, less than great sound quality and the slow (by today’s standards) pacing. Although anyone can hold on for less than one hour, right? Even me.
What’s interesting is that Romero has always been known as a guy who had something to say. He was never just about the body count. Here we see a man who was 5 years removed from his seminal Night of the Living Dead and still 5 years to go before Dawn of the Dead would take him to the next level. Some will be interested to see where the filmmaker stood at that juncture.
In that sense, The Amusement Park plays as history – a glimpse backward to a specific moment in time in the auteur’s career. But Horror? No, I’m afraid not.
The Amusement Park is now streaming exclusively on Shudder.com
