For Halloween, I did something that terrifies me – I entered Meta’s Horizon Worlds. Horizon Worlds is a completely uncomfortable experience where you must interact in real time with real humans masquerading in nightmarish avatars. They can hear you and talk to you and the only way to escape is to go into a “bubble”, which forces you to exit the experience. But this review is not about the nightmare of Horizon Worlds (which sends me, an extroverted introvert, into high anxiety mode), but rather, Eli Roth’s new Halloween short film, which is only available to view in Horizon Worlds.

Eli Roth’s Haunted House Trick-VR-Treat was interesting and it was worth venturing into the Horizon World of terror. When you enter this experience, you are transported into a house that soon feels like a dollhouse because once you make your way to the exterior balcony you view a larger than life, 180 degree live action film (not in 3D though). The narrative is told in first person, so all the characters look at you, make eye contact, and speak to you directly. That mostly means they shout things like “don’t go in there” and “we need to save the children in the walls” (or something like that), even though you are completely incapable of doing anything except go along for the ride.

The short film is more a collection of neat scenes that look like a circus nightmare, an aesthetic that I particularly enjoy. The is a loose plot about Halloween trick-or-treaters who go to a house to get the great treats, are surprise-blasted with a noise bomb when they get to a door and then are vomited on by some costumed man. Next, they are trapped in the house with children stuck in the walls and someone yells to get out. Then you are watching a Kill Bill costumed woman fight with her sister. We move on to a strange doll-making room where an older woman tries to transform you into one of her dolls. Like I said, it is not really a plot and it is more a collection of scenes. This is because the movie does not start when you enter since it is playing for a live audience in Horizon Worlds so it needs to be viewable from any point.

The story is not something you would ever watch on a streaming service because there is no real story, however, this does hold interest in the VR space. When you walk onto the balcony, the house creates a sort of natural frame. The people in the 180 Degree video look like giants, and that makes you feel like you are in a dollhouse. Then, it is clear this 180 Degree video had some sort of budget because at least the costumes, set design, and costumes are nice to look at. 

The problem is there are other humans around you who can walk up to you and ask you anything they want. I had one person repeatedly come up to me and ask me if this was a movie. I muted myself and then just gestured that I don’t know how to talk to him. All I wanted to do was watch the video in peace. 

This experience was set up so that you could only hear conversations if you are within a few feet of the person, so fortunately people talking elsewhere in the house did not disturb the experience. But people can always ruin it for you. How fun!

Overall, I enjoy seeing what people do with live action videos in the VR space. 

https://www.oculus.com/experiences/event/2382091075265001/

Technical Specs

180 Degree Video

6 Degrees of Freedom (you can walk around in the space)

Horizon World event so you can see avatars of real humans and talk to them when they get close to you