10 Recent Movies NOBODY Expected To Be This Good

But perhaps no film on this list invited quite as much specific skepticism as The Amusement Park, a lost film directed by the late George A. Romero in 1973, as was finally re-discovered in 2017.

With the co-operation of Romero and his family, a 4K restoration of the 16mm film print was commissioned, and streaming service Shudder acquired the rights to the project earlier this year.

Given that Romero shot the 54-minute film as a for-hire filmmaker over the course of three days for just $37,000, it was reasonable to expect it to be more an interesting curio than a genuinely well-crafted piece of work.

But lo and behold, The Amusement Park received rave reviews from genre critics, praising its nightmarish depiction of ageism and elderly abuse, with many even considering it a belatedly essential work in thee director's storied filmography.

Despite its rough-around-the-edges construction, it again affirms Romero's gift for conceptual, socially conscious horror, while aided at all times by a stellar lead performance from Lincoln Maazel.