Escape from Tomorrow follows a family on their last day in Disneyland and how everything goes wrong in the oddest of ways. I mostly understood this movie. The characters were compelling, they had their own exaggerated, but realistic, struggles in life that they had to deal with, specifically the husband, Jim. But there were a few points that got really weird. Closer to the hour mark everything gets really surreal and slowly it stops making sense. While it's not necessarily a bad thing, it just kind of happens and comes off as weird and obscure. And the fact that the characters aren't at all scared or confused and seem to believe that whatever's happening is perfectly normal, somewhat. It's all just very different. Overall I don't know how to review this movie. It's weird, it surreal, some things don't make any sense. But I liked it. The story was strong enough to support the odd parts, and those parts were kind of cool regardless. On top of that there's a lot of discussion to be had about this movie. It's not a movie I can really explain, you just have to see it. In the end I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

A few years ago I remember reading some news stories about a film which had been secretly shot at Disney World.Joining an advent on IMDbs Film Festivals board,I spotted the film on a viewing list,which led to me getting ready to visit Disney World.The plot:Taking his family on holiday to Disney World,Jim gets a phone call from his boss telling him that he has been sacked.Keeping the news of his job loss hidden,Jim and the family start to walk round the theme park.Whilst going round the park,Jim finds himself constantly running into two mysterious French teenage girls.Trying to make sense of the girls whilst going on a ride with the family,Jim begins to fear about how magical the "Magic Kingdom" really is,when his family take on a demonic appearance.View on the film:Filmed illegally in Disney World,writer/director Randy Moore & cinematographer Lucas Lee Graham expertly shoot in sharp black and white to give the title a surreal atmosphere,as Moore's jagged shots of the theme park rides gives them a disconnected, otherworldly appearance.Keeping the filming secret,Moore gives the movie dark comedic veins which goes from left-field fellow tourists to the Disney princesses being hookers!Whilst the final 30 minutes dips into jet-black fantasy noir, the screenplay by Moore sadly makes this an event which takes place too late. Limiting the first hour of Jim and his family's tour around Disney World to the odd nugget of weirdness,Moore largely appears to be focused on displaying the location,which leads to the first hour feeling like a mildly hard-going holiday video,in a film which is a long way from entering Disney World.

The opening credits are spliced with a roller-coaster ride, whipping and turning, intercutting with fair like shots, balloons and candy - fun… and ends with a decapitation. Is this setting up the tone for "Escape from Tomorrow" where we may just loose our heads, because it is existential story telling and more about interpretation rather than vapidly force-feeding the story? However, trying to figure it out when there is nothing there is infuriating. Immediately after the decapitation we are introduced to one of the elements that makes 'Escape from Tomorrow' work really well, the overtly disgusting Jim whom attracts more problems than just naturally befall the man. Beginning his day with bad news each step forward gets worse as he comes closer towards a complete mental breakdown. His repugnant persona is what makes this sad midlife crisis trip so fun to watch because the novelty of guerrilla (student film) making in Disney Land begins to wear thin after twenty minutes, although impeccably captured. The story of gross Jim gets boring. The paedophile aspect becomes a little relentless. The cat flu seemed brilliant then became too ambiguous and finally felt like the easy way out. Even the hilarious magic hanging from the witches' neck looses its sparkle. 'Escape from Tomorrow' manages to follow every foul and disgusting set of shots up with impeccable humour where a tongue is planted firmly in a cheek. It manages to let you live in Jim's nightmarish hell of Disney Land with the family and never actually empathise with his apparent conundrums. It evens answers Jim's terrible parenting skills with his brazen paedophilic quandaries. Not forgetting all the boring shots that ties this brilliance together.The last stretch of the film starts to veer towards too much absurdity where someone might have slipped some LSD into David Lynch's mouth and told him to make a dark love story in Disney Land. The problem is that love is not an element that features in this film, strange considering there is a family involved but there isn't even a 'lack of love' theme. So the boring and the weird mix together to form a new kind of waste of time where apparently cleavage lives. Cleavages being the gratuitous aspect that'll help pass the time perhaps but not mind fodder in the slightest. The film does save itself by the bitter end. The witch is something else, the palm shirt is ridiculous, the punishment is apt, he covers semen vigorously and bountifully but the cross bridge to get there proved tedious at points. All in all I have to give it top notches in the category of experimental horror filmmaking regardless of the empty shots. Loving something and hating it can define avant-garde at times and Escape from Tomorrow's unfamiliar territory is eccentric to say the least.

Warning: This review may be strongly opinionated.I did not like this film as a Disney fan, or even a horror fan. I was sort of expecting him to imagine this all out machine-uprising in the middle of one of my favorite parks, but instead it's just some weird cat based, sexual mental illness? I'm not even sure I understood exactly what this movie was about.And I was heavily annoyed by the constant unclear cuts between shots filmed in DISNEYLAND and shots filmed in Disney WORLD. This may be just because I've got autism, but I am very particular about anything involving my Disney...I was also very upset by the mother having such an issue with her man even so much as touching her arm in front of the kids, and I became really enraged with her as an annoying character when she denied her little girl just one freaking balloon and then slapped her across the face in public. I know she was anxious because she knew her husband was eyeing another girl, but still... What the fudge?? Why, just because of that, yell at your kid at a Disney park and tell her she can't have a Mickey balloon before hitting her? It's not her fault. At this point, the mom was BEYOND help for me, and I felt sorry for the kids when I saw their father died and they were left with mommy. The dad, even with his issues, seemed to be a way better parent. He knew when to be more firm, and when not to be, and he was really trying to make this vacation the best one his kids ever had. He was even willing to wait in the longest line ever for his son to ride Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. The mom DID take the daughter on the Teacups and Dumbo, but that was about the most fun she ever allowed either kid to have with her around at the parks. Everything else almost was her controlling everything. (Except on the Three Caballeros, I could understand her making them look at things they weren't looking at already there.) Also, this didn't bug me really but I would be curious to ask the daughter why she thought Queen Grimhilde was so scary??? I wasn't afraid of her at that age. :/ As a matter of fact, I really liked her as a Disney villainess from a young age. I'm really glad they still made her go on the Snow White ride though- because in watching this movie I got to "go with them" on my favorite "deceased" ride once again, this time in a really cool looking black and white tint palette.Anyway though, I'll give it to the movie directors for trying to make something bold. Maybe this movie just isn't my cup of tea. But I certainly won't recommend it to my fellow Walt Disney fanatics- the EPCOT ball catches on fire and explodes in an ugly vision, the mother forces the family to go to the non-classic fireworks that are not featured at Cinderella Castle, for the love of god if you love It's A Small World do not watch this movie, and if you're a die-hard fan and you know about Walt's issue with names... You may have mixed feelings about them referring to him as "Mr. W". He ASKED to be called WALT. Not "Mr. Disney", not "Mr. Walt", not "Mr. W". Just WALT.Also, try not to let it annoy you that the Princesses at the parks are NOT wearing official Disney Parks Cast Member Princess gowns, if things like that do annoy you.Looking at this movie from a horror genre point of view, the black and white was a nicely suspenseful item, but it did nothing to hide the fake special effects and makeup. But since this is a fairly new movie, I'm guessing those things were a deliberate move. Maybe for comedy relief. I often never realize it when a black comedy bites me in the rear end. The only time I've ever realized it was with Sweeney Todd... And maybe Beetlejuice. Tim Burton's been the only man ever to be able to help me know a black comedy when I see it. In that case, this movie is pretty bold, if it is a black comedy. It's a good try, and for the horror fans, worth at least one watch, maybe. But it is definitely not an award winner.