The Amusement Park

A good two years after his passing, relatives of the great George A. Romero discovered and professionally restored a (short) movie the master himself directed in 1973 already. Evidently that, for many diehard horror fanatics - myself included - "The Amusement Park" promptly became one of the must-see genre events of the decade! Seriously, how could this go wrong? Especially with an awesome film poster like that, and the knowledge Romero helmed this little project during his most genius period as a director (namely in between the "Night" and "Dawn"), this was going to be a guaranteed winner!

"The Amusement Park" was apparently never meant to be an actual film, but more like an educational/awareness video message to make clear to younger generations that we are mistreating our senior citizens, and to urge everyone to treat the elderly with a little more respect and dignity. It's somewhat of an extended Public Service Announcement; - if you will! Of course, in the hands of the natural born rebel and anti-conservative George A. Romero, the concept immediately became a grim, shocking, and pitch-black social satire the producers never even dared to unleash upon the world. What a bizarre idea to hire Romero for a PSA-video, anyway. That's like asking Rob Zombie to direct a commercial for diapers, or recruiting Michael Moore to shoot a presidential election promo-video for the Republicans.

Romero's interpretation of the sadly factual and relevant social theme is nothing short of amazing, though. The film, which starts and ends with long speeches by lead actor Lincoln Maazel who elaborates on the subject, is overall extremely powerful, impactful, and very VERY depressing. Fancily dressed and in a joyful mood, our elderly protagonist hopes to have a fun day in a crowded amusement park. He quickly experiences, however, how he and other people of his age are constantly ripped off, patronized, humiliated, ignored, abused, and even physically hurt by all the so-called active and more productive members of society. Various metaphorical sequences are incredibly confronting and harrowing, like how the bumper carts turn into a recognizable traffic situation, or how elderly people are often denied to spent time around (grand-)children. It's a crude but eye-opening film, and it honestly doesn't even matter that it remained shelved for 45 years, because it is still more or less applicable today. Life-expectancy has gone up significantly, but for issue like loneliness and digital analphabetism are the new challenges.

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.

The topic of elderly people being mistreated in Western society is a perfectly noble one to cover in film. That doesn't exempt filmmakers from providing a story though, or character development of any kind. There's essentially zero of either in The Amusement Park, a "lost film" from the late George Romero that I'd wager is getting praised by critics because of context more than anything.

There isn't much of a film here. Our main character orates to the camera for a few minutes at the beginning, explaining just how poorly seniors are treated. Then for the next 45 odd minutes, seniors are treated poorly at an amusement park. The film plays like a not-particularly-good colourized episode of the Twilight Zone, or perhaps more accurately The Ray Bradbury Theatre.

Was excited for this based on the hype, but sadly it proved little more than a mildly curious historical novelty. Heck of a poster though.

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.

Answer: The Amusement Park, an hour-long film on the terrible way society treats the elder commissioned by the Lutherans and directed by the great George Romero in 1973 but not seen until now. I can only imagine that the investors, upon seeing it, said, "WTF did we pay for???"

While it is what it is--a public service film on ageism--there's no mistaking that Romero directed it. (He even shows up as a nasty patron of the park's bumper cars.) It's extremely avant garde, humorless, and depressing. But it's well done on its nothing budget and still has a lot to say on the subject today. No, it's not so terrible or unfinished that it couldn't have been released back in the day. It's was just too much. (And kudos to George's widow and the George A. Romero Foundation for doing a nice job restoring it from a couple of faded 16mm prints.) It's worth a look as a weird curio and footnote to the career of the greatest horror director who ever lived.