Shudder to Host a Live Watch & Virtual Panel Event for the Premiere of George A. Romero’s ‘The Amusement Park’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Normally, when a creative legend passes away, we either celebrate their body of work as it stands since they achieved their dreams and told the stories they wished to tell… or we find ourselves celebrating various works that were unfinished. The kind that achieve completion after their passing or wonders untold are discovered when others go digging to ensure that everything they ever created is shared with the world and it just so happens that the post-passing discovery (or discoveries) applies to the late horror icon George A. Romero. For his unfinished novel, The Living Dead, required an assist from New York Times Bestselling Author Daniel Kraus to be brought to its proper conclusion and his final word on the Dead saga is currently in development since a treatment was written for Twilight of the Dead before his untimely death.

Plus, some of his ‘lost’ films are finding their way into the light and we have his wife, Suzanne Desrocher Romero to thank for all of this, since she has been tireless in ensuring that George’s legacy remains intact and really, all of this is relevant to our discussion today, simply because at long last… we are hours away from the premiere of the recently recovered and discovered and restored Romero movie, The Amusement Park. And to properly pay tribute to this latest offering from the Godfather of the Dead, Shudder has opted to assemble a viewing party and a virtual panel to break down what will undoubtedly be another cerebral work from the master and well, here are all the details on this upcoming event, per Shudder.

To celebrate the premiere of the George A. Romero’s “lost” and restored film, The Amusement Park, Shudder is hosting a live watch followed by a virtual panel on the film and its place within the pioneering independent filmmaker’s influential body of work.

The screening will be available to Shudder members via the Shudder TV feed in the U.S. and Canada on Tuesday at 8:05pm ET, as well as on demand to Shudder members worldwide. Immediately following at 9pm ET on Shudder TV and on Shudder’s YouTube channel, the panel “Reviving Romero’s The Amusement Park” will feature 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.

Recently discovered and restored 46 years after its completion, 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 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.

So, as you can see, this is something of a can’t miss event, since a great deal of people that were close to one of the greatest filmmakers in history will have plenty of thoughtful commentary to offer on his newest release. As will some quality historians and writers and we here at Nerds That Geek simply cannot wait to see what these wonderful minds will have to say about the first new George Romero movie since Survival of the Dead, when this event gets underway on Shudder tomorrow.

Tune into Shudder tomorrow night (June 8, 2021) at 8:05pm EST to live-watch George A. Romero’s ‘The Amusement Park’ and enjoy the virtual panel shortly after at 9pm EST.

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