In a nondescript soundstage building in the bowels of Universal Studios Florida, guests make their way, four at a time, through a space that has been designed to feel like an old and long-abandoned warehouse.
As far as Universal Studios in October goes, this is far from unique. In the weeks leading up to Halloween, the park is host to a large party called Halloween Horror Nights that has been running for 26 years. For the event, the numerous soundstages that ring the park, which was built to double as a production studio, are temporarily transformed into elaborate haunted houses.
And while this haunted house, known as The Repository, begins in a somewhat traditional manner; with guests interacting with live actors who want nothing more than to scare the bejeezus out of them, it is something very new: A fact that becomes clear about halfway through the experience, when guests are given a virtual reality headset that effectively teleports them to a ghost-filled dimension.
“In our story, the VR is called Dark Portal Transport, and it transports you from our world into the supernatural world,” says TJ Mannarino, senior director for art design for the entertainment division at Universal Orlando. “We use it take you to these distant worlds and lands where you come in contact with supernatural and paranormal entities.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time storytellers have used new technology as tool to transport audiences to other worlds. In 1939’s The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s entrance into the Land of Oz was marked by an abrupt switch to the then-new Technicolor technology; and 2010’s Tron: Legacy pulled a similar trick when it switched from 2D to 3D as its protagonist entered the video game world.

from Forbes – Tech http://ift.tt/2dDVurC
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