Film Review – The Park

“The Park” is immediately striking due to its location, with the production gaining access to a real abandoned amusement park, permitted to create a post-apocalyptic atmosphere with help from authentic disrepair. The setting gives the endeavor something extra in the visual department, setting a forbidding mood for this tale, which is a slight riff on “Lord of the Flies,” only with more aggressive kids and a bleaker worldview. Writer/director Shal Ngo has the foundation for something quite interesting concerning the workings of a Kid Nation, highlighting humanity in the face of savagery, but there’s not much more to the effort, which passes on an epic understanding of survival to maintain a poetic examination of children communicating and expressing themselves during their darkest days. Ngo certainly has an idea with potential, but it gradually becomes clear that “The Park” would be better off as a short story. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com