Nearly fifty years ago, the Lutheran Society hired George A. Romero to make an hour-long PSA on ageism and elder abuse for them. When Romero turned in his film, The Amusement Park, the Lutherans found it too disturbing to be released and shelved it. Now The Amusement Park has made its way out into the world thanks to the Shudder streaming service (you can read my review HERE), and Shudder is celebrating the release by hosting a live watch and virtual panel event tonight, June 8th, at 8:05pm Eastern.
This event will be available for Shudder subscribers in the U.S. and Canada to watch through the Shudder TV feed, and will also be on demand for members worldwide. The Amusement Park will start streaming at 8:05pm, and at 9pm Eastern it will be followed by a panel called Reviving Romero's The Amusement Park. This panel will consist of
a conversation between Suzanne Desrocher Romero, founder and president of the George A. Romero Foundation; award-winning horror author and educator Tananarive Due (Horror Noire); author Daniel Kraus, who completed Romero’s posthumous novel, The Living Dead; Fangoria editor-in-chief Phil Nobile Jr.; and Sandra Schulberg, president and executive director of IndieCollect who supervised the film’s 4K restoration. The panel will be moderated by Shudder curator Samuel Zimmerman. Fans are encouraged to join the conversation with @Shudder during the film and panel using the hashtag #TheAmusementPark.
The panel will also be streaming on the Shudder YouTube channel.
Starring Lincoln Maazel of Romero's Martin, The Amusement Park follows
an elderly man who finds himself disoriented and increasingly isolated as the pains, tragedies and humiliations of aging in America are manifested through roller coasters and chaotic crowds. Commissioned by the Lutheran Society, the film is perhaps George A. Romero’s wildest and most imaginative movie, an allegory about the nightmarish realities of growing older, and is an alluring snapshot of the filmmaker’s early artistic capacity and style and would go on to inform his ensuing filmography.
The release of The Amusement Park is definitely worth celebrating, so I will be checking this event out tonight.