Sneaking into a decrepit haunted house with Vanessa Hudgens on Halloween night would be a dream come true for her millions of fans — if they can survive the terror that lurks on the front porch, that is. Thanks to filmmaker Eli Roth, that dream becomes a nightmarish “reality” of the virtual kind with “Trick-VR-Treat.”
Written and directed by Roth and starring Hudgens and Will Sasso, the 30-minute, 180-degree VR experience gives you all the jump scares and blood and gore (along with a great story) that the Master of Horror is known for throwing at his audience.
You are put amongst costumed teens at the end of a residential street bustling with trick-or-treaters when an excited Hudgens rushes up and fills them in on “the best haunted house ever” – a creepy abode where a dollmaker that made toys for the neighborhood children lives. Rumor has it that the glue she used was toxic and everyone that played with them died, including her own daughters. Hudgens’ character leads them to the front door, and then all hell breaks loose. Literally.
The experience is from the point of view of a teenage trick-or-treater, with the creepy and frightful characters that occupy the inside coming up close and getting very personal. And the effects and camera angles kick up the horror several notches, from the flinging of blood to the walls coming alive to “guests” drowning in candy.
“With this being my first time participating in an experience in VR, I had such a blast working with Eli Roth, Crypt TV and Meta to bring this terrifying tale to life,” Hudgens said. “To consider how the viewers will have an immersive experience in 180 degrees really adds so many exciting and new elements to playing a character. I don’t want to give too much away but I can say, for certain, that you will be spooked…and you’re going to love it.”
This was also Roth’s first maiden voyage with VR, and he approached the challenge fearlessly.
“I just get an idea, and I go with it. I don’t overthink it; I don’t judge it. Let’s just do it and see what happens. Let’s just keep creating and coming up with ideas,” he said. “I was like, ‘I wanna break new ground; I wanna try new things; I wanna do stuff no one’s ever done before. And we filmed a Making Of that’ll be in VR 360 so you can watch how we made it.”
“Eli Roth’s Haunted House: Trick-VR-Treat,” from his Crypt TV banner, can be seen in Meta’s Horizon Worlds and Meta Quest TV. If you have a Meta Quest 2 VR headset, it is super cool. You’ll want to watch it several times because there is so much going on and you really have to check out every direction possible (including straight up and straight down) to get the full experience. If you don’t have a headset, you can still get the experience by checking it out on Crypt TV’s Facebook or Instagram pages.
“I have been a VR user and filmmaker since the first generation Oculus Go hit the market,” Roth said. “I love the format for storytelling and have wanted to make a truly immersive horror piece for years. There’s absolutely no comparison to VR in terms of immersive storytelling. Every director dreams of putting the audience inside the story, and there is no better way to accomplish that than with the Meta Quest headset.”
It is, indeed, the ultimate VR Halloween experience. As Roth put it, “Step inside, if you dare.”
