Director: George A Romero
Writer: Wally Cook (Screenplay)
Starring: Lincoln Maazel, Harry Albacker, Phyllis Casterwiler, Pete Chovan, Marion Cook, Sally Erwin
Plot: An elderly gentleman goes for what he assumes will be an ordinary day at the amusement park, only to find himself in the middle of a hellish nightmare instead.
Runtime: 52 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Amusement Park starts as we meet the elderly gentleman who has seen how the world has changed, with the warning about the elderly being ignored by loved ones, despite them knowing they will one day be old.
The man spends the day at an amusement park, which will quickly become a metaphor for the aging process, seeing how people will slowly start to leave the generation behind.
Thoughts on The Amusement Park
Thoughts – The Amusement Park is one of the lost George A Romero movies that has been restored and once again showed us that he was a director with a vision to show a message in an unusual way. Here, the idea is that the elderly are getting ignored by the younger generation, mostly because of time and that not everything it what people still expect. This is a film that starred more volunteers, as we learn from the opening monologue, which gives us the full message of what we will see. This might well be a shorter than normal film, but the meaning is strong and the importance of the message will become clear for everyone to see.
The Amusement Park is coming to Shudder on the 8th of June.
The Amusement Park showed us just how before his time with his messages George A Romero truly was, with this brilliant low-budget effort.