Escape from Tomorrow

On a family trip to a Florida theme park a father finds something is not quite right with the vacation.

Director/writer Randy Moore perhaps has broke the mold for turning something so loved and established on it's head. If it wasn't for the fact it is in black and white it could almost be described as a trippy, psychedelic horror ride.

Opening with a ride on 'Thunder Mountain' (many famous rides are featured throughout) it quickly turns into a paranoia 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' type vibe, reminiscent of elements of with 'Jacobs Ladder' and 'Twin Peaks' as a father begins to see the happy faces of visitors, staff and characters around the theme park turn into gnarled faces, evil faces and others with empty black eyes sockets.

Roy Abramsohn plays Jim; every day Dad, perfectly however, either there's something not quite right with Jim or the park is off. There's some irony thrown in is as the queues are endless for the rides and the pressure of taking the family on any holiday. Both child actors Katelynn Rodriguez as Sara and Jack Dalton as Elliott are notable.

For the first hour Moore creates an uneasy anxiousness throughout as Jim spends his time following two young French girls around the park in midlife crisis fashion straining his relationship with his wife Emily played by excellently by Elena Schuber. You have a grown man who has lost his job, at the end of his tether, blacking out and leaving his kids unattended (horror enough), while encountering strange characters including a cougar like drunk, a whaling nurse, naked women and a kooky scientist to name a few.

While the story isn't linear, it's a strange trippy ride especially in the latter half where Jim finds himself under The Epcot Centre in a '2001 Space Oddity' and 'Future World' looking environment. In addition, the final act and closing has Hitchcockian/'Twilight Zone' qualities.

As a low budget affair what is commendable is that director Moore manages to put a David Lynch style chiller together turning something so ingrained as joyous and familiar into something so unnerving and surreal, while still respecting the real life park and big W (it's not a Disney bashing film persay). Clearly filmed at Disney World and Disneyland it's surprising how well put together and edited the film is and it has some nice effects and blood thrown in for good measure. Abel Korzeniowski's music score emulates and captures both the park's environment and paranoia perfectly.

Overall it's not a conventional or mainstream horror but its not experimental film either. Recommended for those who want to see something truly uneasy without being too graphic. Disney will never seem the same again.

Secretly filmed inside the walls of Disney World and also Disney Land when the small crew was thrown out of Disney World, this would have made a killer short film. At 90 minutes it just can't sustain a feature running length. At 45 minutes, the novelty wore off and at 60 minutes my patience was wearing thin. There's only so many shots of Disney World I can endure with the anemic plot of a man loosing his mind there. The last 30 minutes are just abstract crap that is supposed to be blurred reality, but it looks they they put their footage in a blender instead of editing it. But it's fun to watch in the beginning as we watch our lead start to go bananas at the happiest place on earth and start lusting after two underage girls speaking French. If you are curious, there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes and you'll also have the luxury of the fast forward button.

While this may not exactly be Heaven's Gate, Escape From Tomorrow is a case of the film's production being far more interesting than the film itself. Surreptitiously shot at Disneyland without any permission at all, this film can still earn its title of ultimate guerrilla film based on that fact alone. However, the most interesting factor is that not only do Disney now know about it, but they're not doing anything about it. Evidently it's not worth the effort but boy is is that a hook beyond the film's context itself. Everyone loved the idea of this film. It's a great juxtaposition, a surreal David Lynch/Terry Gilliam-esque nightmare in Disneyland. Unfortunately the films we concocted out of our imaginations are much better than the material Moore thought about. This is the work of an eager amateur.

Contrary to expectation, Escape From Tomorrow has an incredibly mild execution, focusing on cheap gags and slapstick rather than scares or atmosphere (black and white film is not atmosphere). Granted, I'm sure Moore had a lot of challenges and maybe the film doesn't match his initial vision, but the scenes away from the parks match the weirdly off tone so maybe this is who he is. The photography is only okay. The technical aspects do suffer, particularly with sound and visual effects in green screening, but that's forgivable given the circumstance but not forgivable given the script. The fundamental problem is that the acting is very unconvincing. Instead of a protagonist undergoing an understandable mid-life crisis, he ends up like Lester Burnham without the charm, acting just like a terribly unlikeable 16 year old pervert. And this guy is supposed to be a parent.

Perhaps Moore wants us to be uncomfortable watching him, maybe there's things to be said about man's desire for young women, but it's not the kind of meaningful discomfort that really makes a viewer think, it feels thrown in there as a character quirk. It's hard not to go into these types of films without expectations, but it simply didn't go as dark as I would've wanted and ended up feeling random instead with too many plot threads. The film could've saved itself by its final minutes by tying up all of them in an interesting way that actually says something, but instead they vouch for a single one that negates the others. It can be interesting and engaging at times, but as a whole it doesn't really work since Moore doesn't have anything to say about the human psyche, just that this would probably be cool if a film shot in Disneyland about bad things happening existed. Please make this a curiosity viewing only and don't get too excited.

5/10

The fact that so much time and effort was put into putting together this guerrilla film does show in it visual return and the for the novelty factor it's totally worth dredging through once and it should stand as a resume for anybody on the production staff (and a couple of the actors) as a wonderful accomplishment, but for the writer, director and majority of the the cast all I can say is YICK! I'm sorry to say I think a lot of hipper then though people are trumpeting the wonderfulness of this movie more on it's "Sticking it to the Mouse" in it's having been made then on it's actual merit. I would have loved to see a movie that subversively used the "Disney World" as a back drop for darkness but this halfhearted Shining rip off and/or remake is by far not it. If not for some of the wonderful production sense you are watching a student film that may have received a C+. If I were Disney I would not bother suing either I would let this movie make the rounds and even help promote it because they can't do anything to the movie that it does not already do to itself.

Here's the thing. Yes this movie is getting a lot of press from filming in Disneyland without "their" consent, but it's still a good movie. It's an interesting journey of one mans perversions. Are they real? Are they in his head? The filmmaker explores these issues in a way that keeps your attention. My thoughts are- it could have been filmed in your local park. Where or how it was filmed, isn't the point. The story, direction, and actors is what makes it worth your while! The fact that a small independent film is getting a major theatrical release is important in the current state of the film business. This film gives hope to the up and coming filmmakers who have a good story, vision, and collaboration with production members, that you can still do it on your own.