'The Amusement Park', George A. Romero's Lost Film, Picked Up For Sale By Yellow Veil Pictures
The Amusement Park, a long-lost 1973 film from the late George A. Romero, has just been picked up by arthouse sales company Yellow Veil Pictures. The film was recently rediscovered and restored, and is now being shopped at the Cannes Virtual Market. Yellow Veil, who worked on I Trapped The Devil, Depraved, Horror Noir, and more, have the world sales rights to the film and are now looking for buyers to bring the movie to a wider audience.
Back in 2018, word surfaced about a lost George Romero film called The Amusement Park. Writer Daniel Kraus had a chance to check out the film back then, and tweeted out effusive praise, going so far as to call it a "revelation" and proclaiming it to be "Romero's most overtly horrifying film. Hugely upsetting in form & function."
Now, it looks like we're all one step closer to seeing it for ourselves. Sales company Yellow Veil Pictures have acquired the worldwide sales rights for the film, and are now shopping it at the Cannes Virtual Market. Yellow Veil Pictures Co-Founder Justin Timms said:
"We couldn't be more excited to team up with the George A. Romero Foundation to bring this horrifying lost film to audiences. George's work here, as always, is an unnerving criticism of American society, this time embodied through a relentless amusement park."
Here's more info on the film itself:
Recently discovered and restored 46 years after its completion by the George A. Romero Foundation and produced by Suzanne Romero it was restored in 4k by IndieCollect in New York, The Amusement Park is an alluring snapshot of the filmmaker's early artistic capacity and style, and would go on to inform his ensuing filmography. The film was originally commissioned by the Lutheran Society to raise awareness about ageism and elder abuse. Romero, however, conceived of what was perhaps his wildest, most imaginative movie, an allegory about the nightmarish realities of growing older. The Amusement Park stars Martin's Lincoln Maazel as an elderly man who finds himself disoriented and increasingly isolated as the pains, tragedies, and humiliations of aging in America manifested through roller coasters and chaotic crowds.
"Though not in the horror genre it is George's most terrifying film," said Suzanne Romero. "It has Romero's unique footprint all over it." Here's hoping someone will distribute this thing sooner rather than later, because I'm dying to see it.