'The Amusement Park' (1973)


You know how it is.. You get to the end of a tough week and all you want to do is watch a bit of horror and just unwind a little bit, get some space between work and the weekend. That was my plan anyway after switching off my work laptop. Amazon Prime had been throwing adverts my away about this 'lost' George Romero film (filmed in 1973 and only just being released now) that Shudder was airing. Now I'm more of a 'Romero Zombie Film' guy than any of his other movies, I wasn't all that keen on 'The Crazies' and I still haven't seen 'Martin' (amongst many other of his movies. 'The Amusement Park' was right there in front of me though, and it was only fifty four minutes long so I thought I may as well give it a go. Having watched 'The Amusement Park', I now need something else to help me unwind... It's a bloody good bit of film but it does not make for easy watching.

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.

If you watch a George Romero movie, you will end up coming across a message (of his) sooner or later. You just can't avoid it, he loved having them in there. If you're anything like me, you'll find this approach to be a little heavy handed at best, very heavy handed at worst. I get why there needs to be some commentary but I'm more the kind of guy who just likes to see the action play out. 'The Amusement Park' has a message that is very heavy handed but this time round, it really needs to be.

'The Amusement Park' was made as a result of the Lutheran Society hiring Romero to make a film highlighting the issue of elder abuse (thanks Amazon Prime Trivia feature!) and he does not hold back from highlighting just what the elderly go through on a daily basis. As well he should. It's not nice out there, if you're an elderly person, and that's something we all need reminding about every now and then.

Our lead faces all of these challenges and struggles in one visit to an amusement park and we go through every single one of those with him; up to and including the intense loneliness he suffers in a world that has decided he is no longer useful. It is brutal how it is all piled on him, leaving him literally bloody and broken, and then you realise that this isn't actually fiction. Then it gets really horrifying.

Setting it all in an amusement park really overloads the senses, his and ours, and you get a real sense of how it must feel to live in a world that moves just a little too quickly for you (and will not stop for you to catch up). It's scary because it's inevitable; he's dealing with it now but it's waiting for us too.

Apparently, according to Amazon Prime Trivia, the Lutheran society took one look at the film and promptly decided it was a bit too surreal for them, sitting on it until now. It's a shame 'The Amusement Park' was hidden away for so long but it's here now and should be watched if you get a chance. There's a quiet horror to growing old and 'The Amusement Park' feeds you every last drop of it.

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