George A. Romero’s ‘The Amusement Park’

Carr, artist-in-residence at the George A. Romero foundation, teams up with scriptwriter Whitehead for a disappointing comics adaptation of the director’s obscure 1973 film that eschews screams and supernatural horrors for a social moral. The plot follows an elderly man who drifts into an amusement park where he’s berated by employees and visitors for his failing hearing and eyesight, patronized for asking questions, and shoved along to attraction after attraction that preys on his fear of growing older and infirm. At one point, his eyewitness description of a bumper car accident gets disregarded because he wasn’t wearing his glasses. In another scene, he’s ignored and served maggot-ridden food at a restaurant where a young, rich man eating lobster objects to “that smelly old man.” Carr’s realistic artwork highlights dread and uncertainty with shadows and sickeningly macabre faces; unfortunately, the slow pace saps momentum. The supernatural twist involves a time loop and a reveal about past selves and regret, but the art gives it away too early. Though fears of becoming elderly and infirm are legitimately terrifying, this lands as both overly didactic and too tame for horror fans. It’s a miss. (June)