An old man in a white suit decides to experience life to its fullest by visiting an amusement park. He soon wishes he hadn’t.

My eyes nearly popped out of my skull when I saw this film in a Romero filmography I was perusing recently. A lost Romero film? I’m there!

The Amusement Park has quite the backstory. It was financed by The Lutheran Service Society of Pittsburgh who employed Romero to direct it. Then it was thought to be lost after only a few screenings. However, it then resurfaced and was sent to Romero shortly before his death. It was then restored into 4K and made available on Shudder.

And it’s brilliant. It reminds me of the kind of nightmare fuel that would be shown on UK TV during the school holidays.

This is like a PSA crossed with an episode of The Twilight Zone with the amusement park being used as a backdrop regarding how utterly vile life is for the elderly. There’s a darkly hypnotic quality at play here.

It’s also interesting to see Lincoln Maazel star who would return to play Tata Cuda in Martin a couple of years later. There’s also a piece of musak that would later be used in Dawn of the Dead. Romero regulars Michael Gornick and Richard Rubinstein are amongst the crew members.

I’m glad it resurfaced. Fingers crossed for the longer cut of Martin also becoming available to watch.

4.5 out of 5 stars