Inevitability is terrifying.

An elderly man attempts to enjoy an amusement park but increasingly finds the patrons are against him and his fellow seniors. Commissioned by the Lutheran Society, the film is an absurdist nightmare that allegorizes the treatment of many seniors in our society. As such, the horror is a reality and therefore heartrending. I enjoyed the artistry but it hits hard. Thought lost until a 16mm print was discovered and delivered to Romero and his wife in 2017. A restored version premiered in 2019. Lincoln Mazel, who plays the unnamed protagonist, lived to be a centenarian and died at 106. I thought he looked pretty spry for a 73 year old in the film!

Overall, it's pretty amazing that George A. Romano made a movie in 1973, which has finally surfaced thanks to the good people at Shudder! This is unlike anything I have ever seen from George A. Romero and cinema. The Amusement Park is a world that is unforgettable and yet disturbing. It is a unique horror style filled with creativity that will have its viewers feeling and sympathising with every moment on screen. Visiting The Amusement Park is worth your while, and who knows, maybe I will see you at the park one day.

I think I caught alzheimers just watching this.

Maybe I don't know how to appreciate independent films, or maybe this is just a dry film with no appeal, I get the social commentary part of it, but that's it. This one I just don't recommend to anybody.

Don't get old. An awful lot of people are scumbags who'll rip you off, show utter disregard for you as a human being, and walk all over you. There's certainly obvious elements of Romero's approach to filmmaking here, but it also seems far from a finished product. Not my bag, man. 2.3 stars

This film is transparent in its politics and comes out of a specific moment in time. It is an analogy for the general experiences of the disaffected and forgotten elderly. In this regard it's more of an unsettling parable that a traditional horror movie. That said, I lingered with me.

My mind blew a bit this past weekend cause of this film. It is a film that became lost and was restored and this film shows why it is so important to save lost films. It is a film that should have always been out since it's original release. It is like George A. Romero wrote a classic novel that is a true classic. This is a very important and very well done film about being a Senior Citizen and aging and the injustices that come with it. You see money issues portrayed, and a senior home itself showing that it could a bit not fun for Seniors to be in a nursing home in ways but there are great things about being in those too of course. The film also shows how Seniors can fight with another, and how they just are not getting the help and food they deserve to have. And all of these issues and more are told through symbolically through an amusement park and it is genius. This film speaks to today seriously and is a total wake up call that we must help Seniors... And people in general. Also we all need Jesus, Jesus is our only hope.

George A. Romero's lost film 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.

idk... i get it. it is effective, but i honestly can't believe that type of ageism actually happens - does it?!? also - what old man goes to an amusement park by himself in a white suit? it's a sad depressing film. just be kind to others, even if they walk a little slower.

Disturbing, unsettling, memorable. A head-spinning Twilight-zone drama of one man's trip to an amusement park that turns on those who can't "keep up" with youth culture, that presents elderly folks in the Freak Show, and hosts crowds that amuse themselves while others suffer. Masterfully directed and brilliantly detailed cultural commentary. The message is heavy handed but still relevant.

The Amusement Park is a strange experiment from legendary director George A. Romero. This was commissioned as a PSA on ageism and elder abuse, and its effective. What makes this standout is Romero’s surreal direction. It keeps you on edge for the most part. Ultimately, this does feel like a PSA more than a fully fledged film, which is why I can’t go that high with the rating. It’s also too quick to make that much of an impact. But I’m very glad this was released. Overall, I liked this. The story of its release might be more interesting than the film itself, but it’s still a good watch.

Originally produced in 1973 and re-discovered and restored in 2017, The Amusement Park was commissioned by the Lutheran Society, which had commissioned it as an educational film about elder abuse and ageism. However, they had issues with the content of the film and it wasn't seen until 2019 (and now it's running on Shudder). People seem to be falling over themselves to proclaim this a lost classic and a definitive artistic statement instead of what it really is -- an interesting curio from a director who has a celebrated run of films. It has more interest to Pittsburghers yearning to see West View Park one more time, as well as celebrate the weird fact that a film about an amusement park being used to show the perils of ageism would soon be destroyed for retail stores and now is a mainly empty parking lot where a K-Mart once stood. In fact, I once did a marketing survey at a beer distributor out there and the bubbly account expert I was working with asked an older man if he drank Iron City Beer. He answered, "Oh, I used to. My friends and I all used to drink Iron City." She asked back, "Why don't they drink it anymore?" The reply still haunts me as much as her horrified reaction amused me: "Oh, honey. All of my friends are dead." The lead in this, Lincoln Maazel, would play Tata Cuda in Romero's best-realized film -- in my opinion -- Martin. Other than him, most of the cast are volunteers and not professionals. This -- and the reasons for the making of this movie -- make it unfair to rate against Romero's other films. Go into this with the intent to see a curiosity and the opportunity to see lost parts of Western Pennsylvania. That's really what it is, not a lost film per se. It feels very much like the parts of Romero's films I dislike, like There's Always Vanilla and, well, everything after Creepshow. But as someone who respects the director as someone who helped create modern horror and put Pittsburgh on the map (well, until he didn't film Land of the Dead here, but sour grapes and that was probably more due to the city's film office no longer offering tax breaks), this was still worth watching. I just kind of refuse to blindly accept any artists' work as universal genius, even people whose work I adore such as Argento, Fulci and, yes, George Romero. Also, as a denouement, this RogerEbert.com review makes it sound like Romero was living hand to mouth until Dawn of the Dead was made. To wit: "Broke and hungry, he shot low-budget features in the early '70s and directed eight episodes of a sports documentary series called "The Winners," profiling the likes of OJ Simpson and Reggie Jackson at the height of their popularity." Now, I wasn't around and can't speak to that, but Romero was shooting tons of commercial work for companies like Calgon, got movies made and The Winners was a pretty big show. I've spent twenty-five years or more in Pittsburgh's marketing community and know that directors back then -- from other people in the industry and those with similar roles -- were working steadily and hardly starving. Perhaps artistically he was hungry, but this review makes Romero's life into a great tragedy when I see it as a success. Then again, this same review refers to "Rob Zombie's marvelously outré Americana" as an actual thing, so there you go. That said -- even after pretty much saying I didn't enjoy this -- I recommend supporting The George A. Romero Foundation and their mission of preserving and promoting Romero's legacy, as well as creativity within the horror genre and independent filmmaking in general. Here's hoping that they can help us discover new heroes and not just comb through the past for bits and pieces of what once was, or Romero's message in The Amusement Park truly will be lost.

I just turned 60 and this gem rises from the grave like Night of the Living Dead and shakes me to the core. Not much has changed since 1972. This is the stuff of nightmares and in this film, George was not filming fiction.