Shudder Saturday: Escape From Tomorrow (2013)

Escape From Tomorrow begins with a man (Jim, played by Roy Abramsohn) receiving a phone call that is giving him bad news. He's lost his job. And he still has to finish off a family holiday in Disneyland and Walt Disney World. What follows is a steady breakdown, much to the dismay of his wife (Emily, played by Elena Schuber) and children.

You've probably already heard about this movie. It's the one that's most famous for being secretly shot in those aforementioned Disney parks. The font of the opening credits even emulates the Disney flourish. It's a gimmick, one that seemed to work in favour of the film, but I was curious to find out if there was any more to it than that.

Surprisingly, and the film is certainly a divisive one, I found that there IS more to this movie. Although, and I'll state this now before I forget, I was less impressed with it being sold as some bizarre horror film. Whether intentional or not, writer-director Randy Moore has given viewers a pitch-black, subversive riff on the popular Vacation movie series. The father hiding bad news, the incidents that occur with the children (he takes his son on a ride that leads to a lot of vomit), the fake cheer throughout, the scenes in which he starts to follow two attractive young women, the moments of fantasy, this would definitely have featured Chevy Chase in the lead role if it had been made a couple of decades ago, and had more official backing from Disney.

Unfortunately, that's not enough to make this a film deserving of the attention it got. No, that attention was all down to the gimmick. Which is a great shame, because the gimmick actually adds very little to the film. If anything, it makes things worse. If Moore had been able to fake things on his budget, we could have been spared some of the uglier visual moments, including some shots that look like they recycled some rear-projection from the 1950s. Being set in the House Of Mouse allows for a lot of sly references and gags, admittedly, but being shot there does the film no favours whatsoever.

It's obvious that Moore had a great idea he wanted to develop into a feature. It's equally obvious that he didn't have enough to quite get to 90 minutes (which is the approximate runtime here). The script is woefully uneven throughout, devolving into a horrible mess during the "clever" final act. At least the direction is competent enough, I guess, despite the ugly visuals, and Moore at least does a good job of dropping some enjoyable crumbs along the trail that leads viewers from the start to the finish.

Abramsohn is fine in his role, Schuber is better, but given less to work with, and the children - played by Katelynn Rodriguez and Jack Dalton - do what is asked of them. A few other supporting players do fine, and make a memorable impression thanks to the quirkiness of their characters, but the focus is always Jim, with or without his family around him.

It's hard not to at least slightly admire Escape From Tomorrow, even if you end up hating it. It creates an interesting and disturbing world within a familiar, comforting, environment, and Moore can be given credit for doing that. I enjoyed enough here to recommend it to others, tentatively. I just wish that there had been a better way to work on the end result, because the guerilla film-making required takes away from what could have been something unforgettable and brilliant.

6/10

Some mouse problems can be bought here.
Americans can get small world problems here.