George A. Romero may be gone but his legend lives on through his body of work. And that work is still coming. The Amusement Park, a 1973 film from Romero that was never officially released, is finally coming to the masses thanks to the Shudder streaming service. Word of the film started making the rounds back in 2018, and now it’s been restored in 4K by IndieCollect, and now horror streaming service Shudder plans to release the film in North America, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand this summer.
THR broke the news that The Amusement Park, George A. Romero’s long-lost film from 1973, is finally being released via Shudder. The pic was sold worldwide by Yellow Veil Pictures, will stream on Shudder for the first time this summer. The movie features Lincoln Maazel as “an elderly man who finds himself disoriented and increasingly isolated as the pains, tragedies, and humiliations of aging in America are illustrated by his journey among roller coasters and chaotic crowds,” and is described as “an allegory about the nightmarish realities of growing older and as a snapshot of the filmmaker’s early artistic capacity and style.” Romeo was commissioned to make the film by the Lutheran Society. The George A. Romero Foundation initially discovered the film and restored it in 4K under the direction of producer Suzanne Desrocher-Romero.
Word about The Amusement Park started making the rounds in 2018 when writer Daniel Kraus sent out a series of tweets about watching the film. “The moment we heard The Amusement Park had been rediscovered and was being restored, we knew we had to bring this unseen George A. Romero masterpiece to Shudder members,” said Craig Engler, Shudder’s general manager.
Suzanne Desrocher-Romero added: “We at the G.A.R.F are thrilled that after this long journey, this Lutheran society’s industrial with its poignant message will finally get its light! The first and only work-for-hire in Romero’s career sheds a new perspective on an ongoing issue of ageism and Romero’s uncanny sense of reflection on society, and the Romero ‘footprint’ is ever present and bodes well for the future of his impact on American cinema”
Born in 1940, George A. Romero broke into the business directing TV commercials, political campaign ads, and industrial films through his Pittsburgh-based production company Latent Image. But it was his 1968 film Night of the Living Dead that turned Romero into a filmmaking legend. He was the perennial outsider, an indie horror filmmaker who didn’t want to put up with the bullshit of Hollywood. Romero directed 17 films (including The Amusement Park), with 2009’s Survival of the Dead his final feature. He died in 2017.
There’s no official release date for The Amusement Park just yet, but there is a neat new poster from artist Aleksander Wasilewski. Check it out below.
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