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.

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.

George Romero takes us into the Amusement Park of life, in this case in particular, old age. Predictably we discover that its not all gaiety and all the fun of the fair but rather a sobering and at times harrowing indictment on the plight of the aged population in society. While at times moralising and at other times unmistakably a Romero film in its horror outing leanings, the thing I found most predominantly coming through to the surface in this lost 1973 film is the director's heart of gold. Yes, it was made partly as an educational offering but it has Romero stamped all over it and reminds us, well me anyway, that in spite of the rather 'colourful' nature of Romero's own self made genre, he must have been a most wonderful man if the underlying emotions firing this film are any indication. People have said they found this film disturbing and I have a sure feeling that these particular spectators are of a younger age. Myself, belonging now to an older age bracket, instead find it incredibly wise. Of course watching its protagonist stagger through the park, on a limited income, being ridiculed, beaten, and even having the clergy close their pearly gates on him, you can't help but realise that the film was perhaps just too accurate and ahead of its time for the people who originally requested that it be made. Its a potent and important film that finally saw the light of day nearly fifty years after its making. Bravo George...

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.

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.