The Park review
When there is no more room in hell…children will walk the earth. The Park offers a post-apocalyptic future without zombies shambling around for a change.
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The Park
Directed by Shal Ngo
Written by Shal Ngo
Starring Chloe Guidry, Nhedrick Jabier, Presley Richardson, Carli McIntyre and Carmina Garay
The Park Review
Disease has wiped out all the adults on the planet. It strikes the children that are left behind when they hit puberty. The Park gives us a post-apocalyptic world without zombies or other kinds of monsters. It gives us a world with almost nothing. Nothing but a ticking clock on the survivors. At the center of this empty world is an abandoned amusement park.
It’s an exciting premise. It’s mostly set inside the abandoned park. This gives it an equally exciting setting. Unfortunately, The Park never gets full value out of either. It does enough to present a watchable, reasonably entertaining movie…but it never finds a way out of second gear.
It has a couple of other things going for it too. Its young cast does a good job, for starters. It’s a dangerous world that has hardened them all…but they also know there is an expiration date on their lives even if they manage to navigate it. Chloe Guidry carries the lead role of Ines to great effect. Ines is a tough protagonist both in ability and to empathize with. We meet her as she kills an innocent kid in the woods. Such is life in this world. Everyone is a potential danger.
Beyond the individual dangers lies the ‘Blue Meanies”. A sort of legend in the world of The Park. A pack of feral kids that roam the land. At least…that’s what the assumption. There is more to The Park than is initially presented. It leads to a satisfying ending because the story keeps things so basic for so long that any new discovery was going to play well.
The Park is also a darned good-looking movie. Though obviously not shot on the biggest budget…director Shal Ngo puts it all on the screen. The titular park is wonderful to look at. It just isn’t as functional as you want it to be. That makes sense from a narrative perspective, of course. But fun would be fun too. The abandoned park serves as a clear metaphor for the loss of innocence that fuels the movie. When Ines and new friend Kuan (Carmina Garay) can moments of freedom inside of the park…we see glimpses of that innocence and childlike fun that has been stripped from them. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel…but it works.
There are a few flashbacks inside of the story to show how Ines became the way that she is. They’re mostly perfunctory. You can assume how a young girl becomes hardened and rises the ranks in a dangerous world. You’ll be right. These don’t add enough (or show enough growth) to justify their inclusion. The Park only runs 80-minutes long though…so…you know.
Ines is searching for a fabled genius who she believes can cure the disease that everyone is carrying. That’s the bulk of the plot that The Park presents. It keeps it simple because it knows that the world itself is the draw of the movie. They should have done more with the ticking clock aspect of the disease. It would have added some suspense or angst to Ines’s quest. Instead, it becomes something that is occasionally mentioned, and you think “oh yeah”.
Eventually all the things that The Park spends time talking about comes to ahead on screen. Which is why the climax of the movie is so satisfying. Blue Meanies, ticking clocks, genius with a cure…it all factors into the movie once Ines leaves the amusement park. If the film had gotten a little more out of the setting…and a little more out of the set-up…The Park would have had a better ride. It’s still worth buying a ticket.
Scare Value
The Park takes an intriguing set-up and puts it in a fun setting. It doesn’t get everything that it can out of the amusement park aspect…but it does paint a good metaphor for the loss of innocence our characters have been forced through. Some fine performances and a ticking clock make for a fun little watch.
2.5/5
The Park Links
Streaming on Tubi
Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu and Amazon
