‘The Amusement Park’ Movie Review

The Amusement Park is a surreal educational film, of sorts, about a man (Lincoln Maazel) who finds himself in a strange park where he is met with hostility from the staff and patrons, and many of the attractions have bizarre rules and consequences.

This movie, directed by the great George A. Romero back in 1973, was long thought to be lost. The Lutheran Society commissioned a cautionary film about elder abuse from Romero, but when they were brought a horror film, they were appalled, and the film was canned and buried. It wouldn’t be until 2021 that it would receive a release on the horror streaming platform Shudder after an old print was uncovered and restored almost four years after Romero’s passing. The film had a lot of fans excited, since George A. Romero was one of the most influential masters of horror, having essentially created model for all modern zombie films with Night of the Living Dead. He also directed Creepshow, which is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I was very interested in seeing what his “lost film” would be like.

This movie will definitely not be for everyone. Personally, I thought it was great, but it’s much more experimental than his most well-known works. As I said, it was made to be an educational film, even featuring the leading actor opening and closing the film by speaking directly to the audience about the issue(s) at hand. Ordinarily I would see this as a major detractor, but given that it was somewhat required of the format, I can kind of understand and somewhat appreciate this. Think of it as a horror PSA, because that’s literally what it was meant to be. As heavy-handed as this makes the movie come across, the commentary is pretty potent, if you ask me. If you’ve ever seen the horror anthology film Tales From the Crypt from 1972, which adapted several EC Comics horror stories almost 20 years before the television show materialized, this movie might actually feel a tad familiar. I was very much reminded of the segment called “Poetic Justice” with Peter Cushing. While The Amusement Park doesn’t feature the same gruesome just desserts that the old man in Tales From the Crypt offered, there are some thematic similarities, as well as a moment towards the end of this film that evoked said story.

The film isn’t particularly violent, nor is there any sex or profanity. There’s really very little “objectionable content” present, which makes sense, given the film’s original intent. The horror comes from just how bleak and disquieting it is. It never really lets the audience be comfortable or spells out exactly what is happening. There’s a decidedly David Lynch feel to the movie, which is interesting coming from a mainstream horror staple like Romero. He’s flirted with artsier horror in the past, but never to the same degree of success as his zombie films. It reminded me a bit of the films of R. Alvarez, who I highly recommend checking out if you’re a fan of more idiosyncratic cinema. The dissonant, unsettling score definitely helps contribute to this, as well as the bright, rather garish natural lighting. This is one of those movies that just wouldn’t work as well as it does if it weren’t shot on slightly cheaper film. Its look is distinctly gritty and voyeuristic, even with all the bright colors of the park. It’s remarkably unsettling, despite being relatively clean.

George A. Romero’s lost film, The Amusement Park, is a horror curiosity unlike pretty much any other. The central performance from Lincoln Maazel is sympathetic and emotionally affecting, and it adds even more to an already weighty film. It’s unsettling, downright bizarre, and it succeeds in its message about elder abuse and abandonment.

SCORE: 4.5/5