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Theme Park Horror ‘Escape From Tomorrow’ Gets Dated
Featured in my personal top 10 horror features of 2013, and called “a cult classic in the making” (Salon), Escape From Tomorrow (review) comes to DVD and Blu-Ray April 29 from Cinedigm.
Unlike any film ever made, the most buzzed about debut at Sundance 2013 enraptured audiences with the fearless methods used by its writer/director Randy Moore, along with its compelling take on childhood fantasy gone awry. Secretly shot at two world-famous theme parks, Escape From Tomorrow uses covert techniques that take guerilla filming to another level, placing it amongst one of the most revolutionary films in history.
Escape From Tomorrow takes place in a fantasyland of deliberately crafted childhood dreams. When family man Jim vacations with his wife and children, he is invaded by nightmares in the guise of princesses, happy theme park rides and fellow tourists. With a backdrop familiar to all audiences as a setting where fairy tales become real, his world suddenly comes crashing down as these enchanting figures eerily turn into horrific characters threatening his very life.
DVD features include exclusive commentary, including one in which Jim recounts his adventure first-hand, along with a fascinating, must-see look at making of the film.
“The most provocative film from the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Escape From Tomorrow should not exist, and yet it does. Like nothing you’ve ever seen, Randy Moore’s directorial debut is a bold and ingenious trip into the happiest place on earth. An epic battle begins when a middle-aged American husband and father of two learns that he has lost his job. Keeping the news from his nagging wife and wound-up children, he packs up the family and embarks on a full day of park hopping amid enchanted castles and fairytale princesses. Soon, the manufactured mirth of the fantasyland around him begins to haunt his subconscious. An idyllic family vacation quickly unravels into a surrealist nightmare of paranoid visions, bizarre encounters, and an obsessive pursuit of a pair of sexy teenage Parisians. Chillingly shot in black and white, Escape From Tomorrow dissects the mythology of artificial perfection while subversively attacking our culture’s obsession with mass entertainment.”
Are you ready to go back?
After a record-breaking box office run and an extended cut re-release, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ Backrooms is heading home to Digital.
Backrooms will be available to rent or buy this Tuesday, July 14.
In the film, Chiwetel Ejiofor stars in Backrooms as the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, who discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Renate Reinsve (A Different Man) also stars in Backrooms.
Will Soodik wrote the screenplay.
I wrote in my review, “Backrooms is at once complex and sparse, but never repetitive. It might be set in 1990, but it effectively captures modern anxieties and isolation in a way that frequently makes your skin crawl. While the journey ultimately loses steam by its cryptic end, Parsons’ visual representation of the human psyche disturbs like no other.”
YouTube prodigy Kane Parsons makes his feature directorial debut based on his creepypasta-inspired video series, which debuted in 2022 and has amassed over 190 million views to date.
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