Escape From Tomorrow

Escape From Tomorrow (2013)

58% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 54 reviews)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Directed by: Randy Moore

Starring: Roy Abramsohn, Elena Schuber, Katelynn Rodriguez, Jack Dalton

From: Mankurt Media

I apologize for this going up a few hours late, but things happened. Plus, I did need some time to think of how to describe this movie. I did want to watch this tonight, as it's a horror film and it's a movie with quite the backstory. If you haven't heard, this is a film that was filmed guerrilla style, in black and white with the type of cameras you'd find tourists use, and the scripts on iPads... and oh yeah, this was filmed at Walt Disney World and Disneyland without Disney's permission. Disney amazingly did not sue; maybe it was because they did not want more attention drawn to the movie, but not only did this get shown at places like Sundance, but last Friday it got a limited theatrical release and it's available at sites like Xbox Video, which is how I watched it tonight.

The plot, from the IMDb: “In a world of fake castles and anthropomorphic rodents, an epic battle begins when an unemployed father's sanity is challenged by a chance encounter with two underage girls on holiday.” Needless to say, the theme park it's set at is never flat-out named, although you see footage from some of the rides, some rides are correctly named, and of course you see much footage that was actually filmed at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Siemens also gets mentioned by name, oddly enough. As you can tell from the description, it's a psychological surreal horror sort of film. 

I knew little about it going in, aside from the basic plot and how there were David Lynch-esque moments. I don't really watch strange surreal films all that often, where strange crap happens and it's never explained, just because... well, this is one of those movies. Strange random crap happens, and it's never explained; I suppose you could say that a lot of it is just a dream, even if the film never flat-out brings that theory up. I won't spoil much in case you ever want to watch it to decide for yourself. I do have to bring up some minor things, though...

While I admire how the movie got made and how it was made available to the point that me and anyone else could watch it on Xbox Video... it doesn't mean it was a movie I really enjoyed; your mileage may vary, but that's just my opinion. I thought it was just weird for weird's sake, it seemed a LOT longer than 90 minutes, and there's no character you really like. 

I hope you're not supposed to like the dad, who is the protagonist and got fired from his job that morning. He gets wasted to the point of puking, which I suppose is understandable if you have bratty kids, a nagging wife, and just got fired. However, this man who looks to be in his mid to late 30's starts becoming obsessed with those two underaged girls. It wasn't just “a chance encounter” like the plot describes; once he first lays eyes on those girls, he oogles and goggles them and pretty much stalks them! Honest. He becomes infatuated with them and they both looked like they were no older than 15 years old! What a “hero” to follow. I thought the movie was off-putting at times, to be honest.

It's a shame that I did not really care for it overall (other people will enjoy that bizarre crap more than me) as there are effective shots/moments where you see distorted faces or just odd things. The horribly fake greenscreen shots you see a few times were NOT the effective shots I'm referring to, by the way. I am all for Disney being satirized as while I do enjoy going there, there's also bratty kids, A-hole parents yelling at each other/yelling at their kids, rude people there, usually hot weather, long lines... and the movie did point out all those aspects.

Unfortunately, like I said already it was just weird more than good and the plotting made it seem like it was 190 minutes instead of 90. At least it certainly was a unique experience and a movie I won't forgot, which is something. I'll be back Monday night, as I'll be busy this weekend.