Salem Horror Fest 2021 - The Amusement Park (1975)

 

The Amusement Park - The George Romero foundation is one of the sponsors of this year's Salem Horror Fest and with that comes a ew treats. The Amusement Park is one of those treats. A plea for help from the elderly of America through the metaphors and eyes of George Romero. Set in an amusement park it follows and elderly gentleman as deals with the hustle and bustle of the crowds in his aged condition. At one point early in the film he enters a door which leads into a white room. In this room he finds a bedraggled version of himself, and has a conversation about joining the fun in the park. His other self is a wreck and can barely speak, telling him that there is nothing for him out there. Not listening the gentleman ventures into the park. Ignored, dis respected by society, pushed bumped and manhandled the gentleman eventually enters the white room a beaten man until his newer self again appears and he tells him there is nothing out there for him. Through the amusement park metaphors we see various ways the elderly are mistreated. From being ignored by the ticket sellers, to not bein quick enough for younger people who grow frustrated. The problems caused by failing eyesight, a metaphor for how the wealthy are fawned over while the rich don't even want to look at the elderly. There is messaging that looks at incapacity vs charity and the limits when the young start to feel the burden. It really is quite a variety of woes including how criminals prey on the elderly. The film really is a giant PSA about how we treat the elderly. I say that like the film was made in the present but  only because these issue exist today as they did in 1975.

Iron City Ass Kickers (2021) Another older Romero pulled from the archive for the Horrorfest is this pilot episode hoped to become a television series. It centers around the local pro wrestling curcuit in Pittsburgh and tells the story of one of the big matches, for the Iron City title, it has the bad guy champion and the beloved challenger and many of the theatrics you would find in the WWE, I am not quite sure where they were going with this but it is a weird little entry in the Romero world. The man himself plays a bar patron in some scenes but the show seemed to be lacking any meta content leaving it an imitation of the already imitation wrestling world.