The Amusement Park (1973, George A. Romero) released!

Hailed as George A. Romero's "masterpiece", his previously lost movie "The Amusement Park" from 1973 is now publicly available!

We've reported about the restoration and planned release of the movie before, and now it has finally happened: you can watch "The Amusement Park" on Shudder.

While it is certainly questionable this movie is indeed his "masterpiece", it's just as certainly a welcome and very enlightening addition to George A. Romero's catalogue. It gives another interesting insight into the mind of the filmmaker, and is a rare snapshot of the time and place it was made. 

Masterpiece or not, it has received rave reviews from several critics, and is a must-see for fans of Romero anyway.

Watch the trailer for George A. Romero's "The Amusement Park" (1973):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3f9Dgo32o8

Additional sources:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-08/the-amusement-park-review-george-romero/100195606
https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/movies/2021/06/08/george-romero-the-amusement-park-new-movie-lost-film-horror-west-view-lincoln-maazel-shudder-suzanne-desrocher/stories/202106080004

 

The Amusement Park (1973) - restoration finished!

It's finished! George A. Romero's unseen film "The Amusement Park" from 1973 has been restored in 4k, and the restoration premiered at the New York Museum of Modern Art!

This is great news for fans of Romero, and fans of modern US cinema in general. In a review for Consequence of Sound, Matt Prigge wrote that "The Amusement Park" in a certain sense is "...the scariest film Romero ever made". From "Night of the Living Dead" we know where Romero gets his most effective scares from: the individual psyche in a social environment, and the very personal horror of failing to create healthy communication between the two. With "The Amusement Park" set to portray the problems of the elderly in society, and the film being so shocking to initial viewers it was put away, we probably can make a rough guess where this is going...

Internet Movie Database has updated the film's page with a movie poster:

Currently, there seem to be no plans for distribution, "The Amusement Park" will probably only shown on particular occasions, like the aforementioned premiere at the MoMA during the annual "To Save and Project" festival, or similar events.

Sources:
https://www.georgearomerofoundation.org/restore
https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/6235
https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3584647/long-lost-george-romero-film-amusement-park-will-premiere-pittsburgh-october/
https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/01/film-review-the-amusement-park/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/movies/moma-film-festival.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9270362/

The Amusement Park (1973) - George A. Romero's unreleased film

They're only very few, but those few who have seen it are deeply impressed, if not shocked, by it. Now a group of people is working on bringing "The Amusement Park" to a wider audience.

It's not a zombie film, but a scary one, about aging and society. And from what we can read in the few sources we have it really stirs up your guts - here's what film scholar Tony Williams, Professor and Area Head of Film Studies in the Department of English at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, had to say about it in the (only) "Cinema Spectrum" issue from 1980:

"... it is one of the most radical indictments of American callousness towards the vulnerable members of its society ... What gives THE AMUSEMENT PARK its edge is its keen combination of fantasy and realism in an allegorical condemnation of selfish materialism ... The film is too powerful for American society. It must never be released but kept in obscurity. ..."

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrrbbYCV4AAScl0.jpg

Nowadays, writer Daniel Kraus, who has worked with Guillermo Del Toro, had a chance to watch the film, and made a couple of ecstatic tweets about it - here's one from Nov. 2018:

"With the exception of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD - maybe - THE AMUSEMENT PARK is Romero’s most overtly horrifying film. Hugely upsetting in form & function."

And here's another one:

"It's hellish."

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Drr_EjoWsAMa-np.jpg

So, in other words, as you may have guessed: everybody needs to see this! And, yes, Daniel Kraus and the George-A.-Romero-foundation are working towards a 4K restoration!

Keep your eyes open for "The Amusement Park" - if we have any news for you we'll post it immediately. See "Sources" section below for more links and some more detail information.

An IMDB page has been created, but it doesn't give much information yet: 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9270362/

If you want to help getting "The Amusement Park" released to the public, you can make a donation here:
https://www.georgearomerofoundation.org/the-amusement-park/restore-the-amusement-park




Sources:

https://www.georgearomerofoundation.org

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/11/george-romero-the-amusement-park-restoration-1202019725/

https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2018/11/12/what-is-george-a.-romeros-the-amusement-park-actually-about

https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3354783

https://geektyrant.com/news/exciting-details-on-george-a-romeros-unreleased-1973-horror-film-the-amusement-park-which-might-get-actually-released

https://twitter.com/DanielDKraus/status/1061401937499901953/photo/1

https://archive.org/details/CinemaSpectrum01Starbrite

http://sensesofcinema.com/author/tony-williams/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kraus_(author)