The Amusement Park Review

        It’s been a long while since I’ve talked about George A Romero. I’ve talked about his Night of the Living Dead film, some consider it to be the start of the Zombie genre in horror. And that’s what he’s been mostly known for ever since the release of its sequel Dawn of the Dead. I’ve been trying to find ways to view the movie and talk about it but to no avail. As I was looking at films to talk about this year, one film of his stood out. One that was devoid of any supernatural elements and even considered lost for a chunk of time. I’ve decided to at least give this film some love since it was finally released five years ago. 

1. The Park

        It seems to be a recurring thing for this month that the movies I’ve talked about have about the shortest run times. Now, if the movie is interesting within a good feature length then I’ll give it a benefit of the doubt. Mind you, feature length is an hour, and the film clocks in approximately 53 minutes. What makes it even more interesting is that the film, while an original concept from Romero, wasn’t initially billed as a horror movie. The Lutheran Society hired Romero to create a film that highlights elder abuse and showing respect to older people. 

        What he made instead had frightened the Lutherans. To the point that the film was considered lost. Prior to Romero’s passing, the existing print was presented to him and his wife and charity foundation oversaw the film’s restoration into 4k. While I usually would leave this section in another tab, I feel that it’s important to be upfront that the film has been available for many to see among the Romero fans and horror fans in general. 

        Anyways, the film is interesting since it acts like an education film, with an off kilter vibe that something is wrong. We follow an old man as he enters an amusement park. Inevitably, his whole day in the park gets more weird as he slowly robbed, beaten and bloodied. Now, it’s one of those films where it seems innocent enough, until the man sees a row of old people who are in line with their belongings. From the get go, the park is a very unnatural one where the old citizens are abused in multiple ways. 

        It has a Twilight Zone vibe to it where we have an introduction by one of the actors named Lincoln Maazel. He explains that the movie is a visual metaphor for how the elderly are mistreated. And the overall execution is on point as we see that Maazel goes through the ringer of seeing just how he gets through in the park. Now, it’s not like the rides are horror themed or anything tacky like that. More so that the rides kill or alter the old people riding them. 

        For instance, we see that in the bumper cars rider that the man we follow plays along with an old couple. They bump into a younger couple, to which prompts the couple of losing their license. Now, with how I’m describing the scenario seems very out there. And that’s the thing with Romero is that he while he made his Dead films, he managed to have some level of depth and commentary to them. It would be one thing where it would just be a horror movie and nothing else. 

        The point of the horror in a general sense is to have commentary that helps the horror be effective. Some of the greats utilize it without having it take away from the scarier elements. If a movie is just all scares and nothing else, then it loses its luster as just another schlock that comes out year-round. What makes this one work is we see just how much abuse the main character goes as his humanity is abused, to the point that he gets attacked by outside forces in a place where he supposed to have fun. As an experimental film where it’s not abstract but attempts to be somewhat educational in a loose sense, it manages to be effective by being it true in its existentialism. 

2. Overall

        The Amusement Park is a must watch for the die heard George Romero fans and a severely underrated film of the 70s.