Put down the games: Watch the best scary VR horror movie experiences
Pan-Asian zombie hit Train to Busan was adapted into a virtual reality experience last year, with heaps of undead tension as users are reduced to tears while hordes of zombies charge towards them.
Contents Panda – the world sales branch of South Korea’s Next Entertainment World – partnered with Singapore’s Vividthree Productions to adapt Yeon Sang-Ho’s smash hit zombie flick. Contents Panda president Vincent Kim expressed how the movie “has the scalability to be developed into multiple forms,” while Vividthree CEO Charles Yeo proclaimed the movie “deserved to be adapted into a multisensory format.”
As a result, Train to Busan was transformed into a location-based form of entertainment as well as an immersive VR experience. It’s perhaps of little surprise such a popular and tense apocalyptic horror movie has been marked for development within the VR sector.
In recent years, various movie studios have promoted upcoming horror flicks by experimenting with their own VR experiences. Here are ten of the scariest VR horror experiences worth checking out with whatever headset you’re currently rocking.
It: Float
Featuring an abundance of eerie sewers, creepy gutters, and bursting balloons (“pop, pop, pop, Georgie!”), the It: Float VR experience was simple but effective, including a horrifying guest appearance from everyone’s favorite child-devouring, dancing clown.
Stranger Things
Though not a movie, Netflix’s immersive experience of Joyce Byers’s (Winona Ryder) otherworldly living room is a creeptastic treat sure to make every hair on your body stand on end. Especially when Will decides to call the house from the Upside Down about a certain gatecrashing Demogorgon.
“Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul”
Full of the sort of unsettling atmosphere and jump scares you likely know to expect from the Paranormal Activity franchise, “Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul” offers a more engaging VR experience than most. As you might imagine, this also ups the spook-factor, making it one of the scariest VR horror movie experiences around.
The Conjuring 2: Experience Enfield
Providing a sample set of scares from some of the best moments from The Conjuring 2, this 360º experience is taut, ghastly, and certain to make you shudder.
Happy Death Day 360
Though the experience may lack the perky charms of star Jessica Rothe (La La Land) or Israel Broussard (The Bling Ring), Happy Death Day 360 still provides the same slasher movie homages as Christopher Landon’s snappy comedy-horror. Centering around a murder mystery at a birthday party, the experience puts you in the position of slasher movie detective as you have to figure out which guest has gone kill-crazy.
“Rings 360”
If only the movie inspiring this VR experience was a little better, this 360º immersive clip could’ve been seriously killer. After all, watching that video from the Rings movie franchise in VR is a truly chilling concept. Sadly, the preposterously awful Rings was scarier than any fan anticipated (but for all the wrong reasons.) Still, this is a fun VR trip, regardless.
Ouija 2: Origin of Evil
If flickering candles, sinister silhouettes, and screaming jump scares are your bag, the Ouija 2: Origin of Evil 360º experience will be a veritable treat. Especially when the Ouija board uncannily tells you to “r-u-n”!
Annabelle: Creation
Hitting all the usual beats of your average spooktacular 360º experience, Annabelle: Creation will have your nerves on edge while playing a fun and harrowing game of hide & seek. There’s a demon hiding in just about every dark corner imaginable, resulting in plenty of scares along the way.
Death Note
We’re aware Adam Wingard’s U.S. adaptation of the classic manga series isn’t exactly horror per se, but Netflix’s VR experience of the movie is definitely ominous enough, even if it is a little stupid. The whole thing is honestly worth it just to virtual-hang with Ryuk (Willem Dafoe).
Lights Out
Centered around some pivotal scenes from David F. Sandberg’s creeping horror, the Lights Out 360º experience hurls Diana at you from a variety of unexpected dark corners, making it suitably terrifying.
