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.

After reading just a few quick things on this and how it was similar to both The Shining and Eraserhead (two of my favorite horror films ever), I was quite excited for this. It looked like an indie experimental horror film that I would love. Sadly, while I think there are some very interesting things in here, or things that could be interesting, it never really amounted to much. Not enough horror, not enough intrigue. I think the acting was solid and the story decent enough, I just wish it had gone to further places, done more stuff with the concept. It's not bad and it's sort of really memorable, but I can't really say I liked it overall. Really mixed on it.

i have watched this movie (not film), and i feel compelled to warn everyone who are pondering about wasting their time on it. it is a bad one. the first thing to notice is the horrendous, bad "acting". if they were to come and say it was on purpose, to depict the average mainstream Joe and his family in the u.s. of a., it would be only an excuse. it is obvious this is a very low quality independent film that "has to" recur to the pathetic guerrilla filmmaking card, as though that itself were worthy of cinematic grandeur or merit of whatever kind. i am utterly baffled by the good reviews and comparisons to the works of Polanski or David Lynch! certainly, those who express such opinions are ignorant people who have very little knowledge of cinema (or even common sense), and have not watched quality work (ever?), mostly by European and some Asian filmmakers, who have a deeper human sensibility. but, compare it to David Lynch?! we are talking about a master artist here. have these people watched David Lynch films at all? if they have, they must have very bad perception problems (no, it is not about people having different tastes and all that; you don't compare plastic bottles with The Beatles' Blackbird). then, the plot: totally childish. does one have to praise this director for stating the obvious Disney's superficial appeal on the unthinking mass? umm, no. this looks more like a high school project, at best. then, the "surrealism" in this is so weak it's not even surrealism, it is a botched attempt at it, rather. all the situations are but puerile ideas that are as shallow as the criticism they pretend to attack. it all has a very "american" reek to it, but it cannot be claimed that it was on purpose. all in all, a very bad waste of resources. oh, wait! i may have missed the point! maybe these guys were just having a laugh! maybe they were like, hey guys, what if we make this "guerrilla film" at Disney...? hey dude, that would be awesome! let's do it! and then, it all turned even better, with promotion and people praising it and comparing it to a Lynch film!!!!! hmmm...maybe i could make a guerrilla film about a bunch of guys making a guerrilla film and being compared to David Lynch...! maybe i could even be compared to David Lynch...!!!

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

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.