The Amusement Park
Shudder | Release Date (Streaming): June 8, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
1
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comScout TafoyaJun 8, 2021
Whatever the Lutherans thought they were paying for, they accidentally unleashed our most deeply cynical artist at the height of his ferocity toward the country's decaying morality, and wound up funding one of the most upsetting films of the '70s. Read full review
100
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaJun 4, 2021
I can’t remember the last time a film shook me like this. Read full review
91
The PlaylistBrian TallericoJun 4, 2021
The Amusement Park is a concise film (only 52 minutes), but Romero packs it so full of detail and ambition that it contains more to appreciate than most films that run three times as long. Read full review
91
ConsequenceMatt PriggeJan 23, 2020
Barely seen or even heard of since it was made, this “lost” Romero film doesn’t disappoint, and even though it’s not technically a horror film, it will scare you into spending any and all free time tending to anyone over 70 for fear of karmic retribution. Read full review
90
Screen RantDebopriyaa DuttaJun 8, 2021
Sporting discordant sound design and deliberately surreal visuals, The Amusement Park emerges as a harrowing allegory about the terrors of ageism. Read full review
82
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJun 4, 2021
As with every summer – even this supremely strange one – there are a ton of horror movies coming down the pike. But no matter how scary the new Conjuring or how disgusting the new Saw may be, I can guarantee that you won’t see as soul-shaking a film this season as The Amusement Park. Read full review
80
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJun 14, 2021
The film’s view of a mind thrown back on itself, and the profound vulnerability, mental derangement, and physical degradation that result, is, true to form, a political horror. Read full review
80
VarietyMichael NordineJun 12, 2021
Shot on delightfully grainy 16mm and featuring a cast of nonprofessional actors, the film is so alluringly disorienting that, by its end, some viewers will find themselves struggling to remember how this fever dream started. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jun 8, 2021
The Amusement Park passes in a deranged blur; it’s a glorified PSA made with the means (and in the spirit of) antagonistic outsider art. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenJun 7, 2021
With The Amusement Park, George Romero holds a cracked (funhouse) mirror up to a callous and ultimately terrified society. Read full review
75
The Film StageChristian GallichioJun 4, 2021
It doesn’t always work as a coherent whole, but The Amusement Park is still a fascinating experiment from a director at the height of his creative skills. Read full review
70
Little White LiesAnton BitelApr 5, 2022
Carnivalesque both literally and metaphorically, it is a surreal affair, but for all its unnerving strangeness, the depressing subtext is spelt out very clearly. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineJim VorelJun 7, 2021
There’s little here for the casual horror fan, but genre completionists will likely find something that sticks with them. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerJun 2, 2021
Finally recovered from the archive by the George A. Romero Foundation, and restored by New York's IndieCollect from two faded 16mm prints, its mere existence as a lost Romero is enough to make it worth watching. But it's not simply a dated curio: it's a fascinating if dated curio. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 8, 2021
The important thing is to be disturbed. Read full review
35
PolygonDeirdre CrimminsJun 11, 2021
At best, it’s basically a heavy-handed, inelegant Twilight Zone episode that was ultimately rejected by the religious organization that commissioned it. Read full review
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