In total blackness, a voice begins speaking. the invisible

Whispering.

Teasing.

Threatening.

The voice asks the audience to hold their hand in front of the face, and to imagine what it looks like, to draw an outline around it, and then to make it a fist – the outline, not your real hand – and to imagine that fist clutching a big, heavy stick. A stick that later thrashes another audience member.

For one weekend in February, participants spent 20 minutes in total darkness wearing headphones, and creeped out as part of the marketing activation for Universal Pictures’ reboot of their classic horror IP The Invisible Man, starring Elisabeth Moss, which opened February 28th.

The Invisible immersive experience took place inside a shipping container plopped in the middle of Universal City Walk. It was similar to other Hollywood movie activations, many of which appear at San Diego Comic-Con® or South by Southwest, by immersing guests in a movie world or concept. Unlike the big activations of say, Westworld or Carnival Row – big as in square footage and budget – The Invisible had a mere 30-minute wait time.

Groups of roughly 20 guests confined themselves into a wood-paneled theater and tethered their ears to quality wired headphones. Once everyone was seated in two rows facing black curtains, the lights extinguished and the experience began.

The entire show, except for a light-flashing climax, occurred in absolute darkness. The recording rang true, a master work featuring directional Foley, an eerie narrator, and instances of realistic dialogue supposedly from your fellow audience members. Removing the cans shattered the exquisite audio illusion but verified the production’s adroitness. Haptic features like air fanned guests’ faces, a vibrating floor quaked in tension, and the distinct sensation of something dense thwacking the container’s metal sides as the narrator emphasized his menace all added to the sensory deception.

Although the conceptual, technical, and thespian aspects reverberated with talent, the plot and scripting lost some signal in unnecessary noise, like a roughly three-minute fantasy sequence in a forest. There were also a few suspension of disbelief hiccups, like how a blinded audience member – really one of the audio actors – could possibly amble to the unseen stage to play the drums. But overall, The Invisible cleverly evoked the concept and danger of being harassed by someone you can’t see. As it turns out, the evil side of ASMR is invisible.

The Invisible has concluded its single-weekend activation. Check out our Event Guide for more horror and immersive entertainment throughout the year.

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