What was originally commissioned as an educational film about elder abuse & ageism turns into a nightmarish hellscape in the hands of an influential horror filmmaker. The Amusement Park remains the least seen of all George A. Romero films, for it was considered lost until an existing print surfaced recently, and is no less than a surreal, disquieting & harrowing chiller.
Directed & edited by Romero (Night of the Living Dead), the story covers a day in an elderly gentleman's life who visits an amusement park for fun but finds himself in a hellish place he cannot escape from. Apart from the bookended segments, the film is short on dialogues and relies on its uncanny imagery to portray the sheer brutality of how old people are treated by the society.
There is an uneasy aura that the film comes equipped with, and the eerie camerawork, silent forebodings & strange hallucinations only contribute to it. Still, the horror isn't derived from the protagonist's unending misery but from the realisation that it's a stage in life where all of us are inevitably headed, an unavoidable reality that comes to us all. And this is how it may unfold if we don't change things.
Overall, The Amusement Park is a plea that asks its viewers to treat the elders with respect, kindness & understanding in a world that favours the young & ignores the old. The religious faction behind this public service announcement surely got more than what they bargained for but Romero's sharp, aggressive treatment of the material not only delivers the goods, it also infuses a sense of urgency to it. Only 54 mins long.
Directed & edited by Romero (Night of the Living Dead), the story covers a day in an elderly gentleman's life who visits an amusement park for fun but finds himself in a hellish place he cannot escape from. Apart from the bookended segments, the film is short on dialogues and relies on its uncanny imagery to portray the sheer brutality of how old people are treated by the society.
There is an uneasy aura that the film comes equipped with, and the eerie camerawork, silent forebodings & strange hallucinations only contribute to it. Still, the horror isn't derived from the protagonist's unending misery but from the realisation that it's a stage in life where all of us are inevitably headed, an unavoidable reality that comes to us all. And this is how it may unfold if we don't change things.
Overall, The Amusement Park is a plea that asks its viewers to treat the elders with respect, kindness & understanding in a world that favours the young & ignores the old. The religious faction behind this public service announcement surely got more than what they bargained for but Romero's sharp, aggressive treatment of the material not only delivers the goods, it also infuses a sense of urgency to it. Only 54 mins long.