You just can’t keep an undead / biker / lord of darkness professional wrestler down. Despite retiring a year and a half ago, the Undertaker (Mark William Calaway) is returning again but this time in interactive Netflix movie Escape the Undertaker alongside the WWE’s New Day, consisting of wrestlers Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods. Escape the Undertaker will be one of those Netflix films that allows the viewer to choose what happens like in those old “choose your own adventure” books, and its trailer demonstrates how it will work.
In the “film,” the New Day stop by the Undertaker’s mansion to see if he’ll let them use his urn, which holds magical forces, to become super powerful wrestlers or something. The trio, infused with their trademark positivity, enter Taker’s house and are treated to a host of horrors and tortures that you, the viewer, can choose how they react to. Netflix has experimented with this kind of interactive movie before, mostly with kids’ properties or a series of You vs. Wild shows, and it can be pretty fun.
Bringing back the Undertaker, a wrestler/brand that is recognizable far outside of wrestling fans, is a no-brainer for WWE, and putting him into films like Escape the Undertaker means they can still keep it going without having to have the 56-year-old Calaway’s aging body fall apart from being thrown onto a mat repeatedly.
Clearly, this one shouldn’t be taken too seriously. There’s no doubt about it — this looks like a movie made by a wrestling company. Per the Escape the Undertaker trailer, the sets are cheap, the lighting is awful, the special effects are basic, and the acting is just slightly above cutting a promo. Still, the interactivity and the presence of two of WWE’s biggest names could make for an enjoyable bit of distraction.
The film is directed by Ben Simms, who has directed the aforementioned You vs. Wild shows, so that’s something. Ben Silverman, Howard T. Owens, Drew Buckley, Susan Levison, Ben Zierten, Rob Buchta, Liz Schulze, and Simms are executive producing.
Escape the Undertaker will release on October 5.
