The Amusement Park — The Amusement Park( DVD)

From the mid-1970 The Amusement Park is one of the lost pieces of George A. Romero's filmography. It’s a strange, often nightmarish, and bizarre public information film focusing on ageism- all set in a fun fair.  Here from Acorn Media International is recent a release of the film. It comes in the form as either a DVD, Blu-Ray, or Digital release of the film- I’m reviewing the first of these. The disc takes in a commentary track, and a few other extras.

The Amusement Park was shot in 1973, and then released in the year 1975. It remained lost for the next forty-six years when it received a limited cinema release in 2019. It was filmed in West View Park, a Pennsylvania-based amusement park, which was open between 1906 and 1977. 
 
 
The film begins with a short introduction from a man in his 70s walking around the deserted park- he informs us what we are about to see, a PIF regarding the issues of age in society. Then we switch to a glowing white room lined with seats- hunched over in one is a bedraggled, dirty, and badged elderly man in a white suit. The door at the far side of the room opens and in steps a similarly white-suited man with neat brill creamed hair, and positive mannerisms. He speaks to the first man, who just babbles when he asked ‘how he is’ and ‘will he come outside’…so the second man steps out of the door into the busy fun fair.
 
Here he has several encounters and goes on a few rides. He goes on the bumper cars, before being stopped by a policeman who tells him off for not wearing glasses, innocently speaks to children before being told he’s a pervert, goes into a nightmarish gym for the elderly, has food snatched from him, money stolen, beaten and berated. The old man gets slowly but surely more confused, and upset- with the whole thing building up to seriously unsettling and disturbing heights.
 
Playing the lead elderly man is Lincoln Maazel- an NYC-born actor, who also appeared in Romero’s modern vampire film Martin. Maazel does a wonderful job- going from bright and jovial, to confused and frustrated, and very upset. The surrounding cast/ extras are all good enough for amateur actors.
 
I’d say you’ll certainly have to enjoy PIF/ and or low-budget 70’s based fairground oddness to really enjoy The Amusement Park. The film has been rather overhyped in certain areas of the genre-focused press, and it’s not a great lost masterpiece, as some are calling it. But what it is, is an often effectively nightmarish curio- which at points rises both to disorientating and emotionally upsetting heights.
 
 
Moving onto the DVD, and we get a commentary with track Michael Gornic- who was the assistant cameraman on the film. He begins by talking about how he got involved in working with Romero’s company Latent Image, where he first worked in the sound department, going on to do numerous jobs over the fifteen years he spent with the company. He chats about how the film was made for and funded by the Lucian church. He talks about other members of the crew, and points out some of them in the film. We find out it was captured in three days, and he give details about the location. He talks about the many cuts Romero made in the film, and how the lab was getting fed up processing it. And more- it’s certainly an interesting track.
Otherwise, on the extra side, we get a good selection of things- ‘Re-opening The Park’ with Suzanne Desrocher-Romero(11.53). ‘Bill & Bonnie’s Excellent Adventure’ (9.36) with Bonnie Hinzman, who was on the films crew as well as acting in the pictures. ‘For Your Amusement’ (10.36) with artists Ryan Carr, whose working on a graphic novel of the film.  Panel interview with Suzanne Desrocher-Romero, Sandra Schulberg, Greg Nicotero and Daniel Kraus, moderated by Shudder’s Samuel Zimmerman(22.15).  The Amusement Park official brochure. The Amusement Park script. Behind-the-scenes photo gallery
 
 
There is no doubt it’s great that The Amusement Park has resurfaced, getting this nicely extra-edged reissue. And it’s certainly an interesting smaller film in Romero’s filmography, which will be enjoyed by those who like bizarre public information film/fairground set 70’s oddness, though it is not a long-lost masterpiece…so don’t believe some of the hype, it is what it is a rather weird, at times nightmarish PIF.