Review: “Escape From Tomorrow”
- Scott
- Oct 29, 2013
- 3 min read
Knowing what I do about Disney parks, and the Disney brand, I am amazed that this movie was allowed to not only be made, but shown to audiences. I was super excited to watch this one.
Escape From Tomorrow is a guerilla style movie filmed almost entirely on location in Disney World. At the beginning of the film Jim is introduced. He is on the phone with his boss who is apparently firing Jim in the middle of his vacation. Jim doesn’t say anything to his family about this as they head off on one more day in the happiest place on Earth, Disney World.
As Jim, his wife Emily and their two kids Sara and Elliott walk around the park, Jim begins to feel weird. When he hits the “Small World” ride, Jim begins to hallucinate that the little dolls faces are all contorting into evil, almost demonic, sneers. The family then decides to split up. Emily takes Sara, and Jim takes Elliott and they go their separate ways to visit separate attractions. However, Jim then sees two French girls, literally frolicking around the park, and decides to follow them. They go on Space Mountain, which Elliot is reluctant to ride and after the ride, it become apparent why.
Jim then meets back up with Emily and Sara after Elliott’s … outburst. Sara decides that she wants to stay in the park longer and Emily and Elliott go back to the room for a nap. After Sara has an accident and skins her knee, Jim takes her to the nurse. The nurse fixes up Sara and ominously ask if they have symptoms of the “Cat Flu”, which neither of them do. Jim and Sara spend time walking around the park, and then befriend a little boy and his mom. Jim then blacks out, and things go south real quick. Things begin to happen to Jim and his family that make them all a bit leery of the park and its patrons.
With out spoiling anything major in the movie, that is about all I can say about Escape From Tomorrow, other than it is extremely strange. More of a psychological thriller than horror movie, it attempts to mess with your head, and did a good job of that with mine. By the end I was left scratching my head over what I had just watched. The bulk of the movie is exposition and set up to a few key scenes that still don’t make much sense to me. The ending of the film being the biggest question mark of them all. Maybe I need to watch it again, but I still have no idea what just happened, and more importantly, why.
Escape From Tomorrow is amazing, if for no other reason that it existing in the first place. Disney is never mentioned directly either verbally or with branding (except once where it is bleeped out). Done entirely in black and white, no doubt to make it easier to edit things out that would besmirch the Disney brand, it’s very clean and the cinematography is great. Other than a few obvious green-screen moments the bulk of the movie is done on location. That alone is amazing to me. Disney is wildly protective of their brand and reputation, and it just surprises me that they let this film get to where it is.
The worst part about Escape From Tomorrow, aside from the creepy creepster Jim, is that I don’t even know if I liked it or not. On the one hand it is about Disney World. Something that I am mildly obsessed about. On the other hand it’s so hard to figure out what the hell is going on, I don’t know if it’s worth seeing again to try. By the end, I understood a few things that it was trying to convey to the audience about the family, but the B-story made no sense. I am just as confused about this movie now as I was having only seen the trailer. I dunno… maybe watch this movie. Just know that you probably will be mindlessly staring at the screen for the better part of the movie with your brain leaking out of your ears.
Comentarios