Well, it seems that since Randy Moore‘s “Escape from Tomorrow,” a surrealist Sundance Film Festival smash that was filmed, either surreptitiously or illegally (depending on your frame of mind), at both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World theme parks, will actually be getting a theatrical and VOD release in October, the gloves (quite literally) have come off: just take a gander at the confrontational new poster for the film, debuted by Entertainment Weekly.
The poster, which features the unmistakably gloved hands of Disney icon Mickey Mouse, except this time covered in blood, is a singularly powerful image. Going along with the image is a creepy tagline (“Bad things happen everywhere”) and the film’s title, rendered in Disney-esque font. How Moore and his distribution team have evaded litigation from the Mouse House is beyond us, especially considering how confrontationally upfront the marketing has become. The poster might as well just say, in huge curlicue letters, “We dare you.”
In the film a dad (Roy Abramsohn) gets laid off while attending Walt Disney World with his family. This begins a descent into madness that includes his growing, unhealthy attraction to a pair of young French girls and culminates in the man getting interrogated in a special detainment facility located underneath EPCOT‘s iconic Spaceship Earth aka the Florida park’s giant glittery golf ball. The movie was shot guerrilla-style inside the parks, utilizing actual Disney locations on both sides of the country. It is supposedly very dark and strange but also quite affecting (you can read our Sundance review here) and has become a point of curiosity for many, especially since early word was that Disney would never, ever allow this thing to be shown.
Well, those naysayers were wrong and the movie will be out in theaters and on VOD on October 11th and should serve as a nice counterpoint to the Disney-sanctioned “Saving Mr. Banks,” which features Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and seems predestined for Oscar gold. Prepare to get your pristine white gloves bloody.
