George A. Romero’s Restored Lost Film Is Ready for Release: ‘His Most Terrifying Movie’
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Horror movie fans might get the chance to see George A. Romero’s long lost 1973 feature “The Amusement Park” on the big screen. According to a report published this week from Bloody Disgusting, Yellow Veil Pictures has come on board the project to handle the movie’s worldwide distribution rights. Producer, and Romero’s widow, Suzanne Desrocher spearheaded a 4K restoration of the film alongside the George A. Romero Foundation. The restoration was completed by IndieCollect in New York.
“The Amusement Park” stars Lincoln Maazel as “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.” Romero was originally commissioned to direct the project by the Lutheran Society, which wanted to create a film to raise awareness about ageism and elder abuse. The director delivered an allegory about growing old that Desrocher says is “George’s most terrifying film…It has Romero’s unique footprint all over it!”
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With Yellow Veil Pictures handling worldwide distribution rights, horror fans can look forward to a buyer coming on board and eventually opening the film in theaters or on digital platforms around the world. Romero, the horror icon behind “Night of the Living Dead,” passed away in 2017. The director’s last theatrical feature was 2009’s “Survival of the Dead.”
“The Amusement Park” made headlines almost two years ago when author and Guillermo del Toro collaborator Daniel Kraus wrote on social media that the film had been discovered and he had seen a cut of it. Kraus went so far as to deem “The Amusement Park” a “revelation” and “Romero’s most overtly horrifying film” other than “Night of the Living Dead,” adding it’s “hugely upsetting in form and function.”
“The scholar Tony Williams, who saw the film 30 years ago, wrote, ‘The film is far too powerful for American society…It must remain under lock and key never seeing the light of day,'” Kraus added.. “It was never shown publicly. The people who funded it wouldn’t allow it. And no wonder. It’s hellish. In Romero’s long career of criticizing American institutions, never was he so merciless.”
The next step in “The Amusement Park’s” journey to the big screen is landing a U.S. distributor.
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