SUNDANCE 2013

'Escape from Tomorrow' Indie Secretly Shot at Disney Gets a Release

by Ethan Anderton
August 19, 2013

This past year, one of the most buzzed about films at Sundance was Randy Moore's film Escape from Tomorrow. However, the buzz wasn't because the film was a sensational piece of cinema, but because it was secretly shot at Disney World, and was decidedly something that the House of Mouse would not approve of in the least. The story follows one man's descent into madness as he attempts to keep up appearances with his family on vacation after learning that he's lost his job. A strange obsession with seemingly underage French girls at the park, and hallucinations and bizarre characters make it a twisted trip, but that's where the novelty ends. Because of this, many though the film wouldn't get distribution. But they were wrong.

Deadline has word that Producers Distribution Agency (PDA) will release the film in theaters (in partnership with Abramaorama and FilmBuff) starting October 11th at New York City’s IFC Center and will be made available on VOD including iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Cable Movies On Demand, YouTube, XBOX, Sony Playstation, Cinemanow and Vudu. We're not sure if Disney will have anything to say about this since some of the park's iconic elements are featured quite prominently without actually naming any copyrighted characters or properties from Disney itself.

While the film works as a weird, trippy, tongue in cheek horror film set at Disneyland, it's nothing more than a film school-made B-movie. Our own Alex Billington found more to like about the film than I did, but he still didn't love it. In the end, it's a true indie, made on a low budget, but it lacks a quality story to be truly great. It's shot in black and white which adds some style, and it has a haunting score by Abel Korzeniowski (of A Single Man, W.E.), but this is a film that is destined to be loved by a small audience, and be much more of a cult classic than anything.

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