Below is a review of One Day Die. Please expect minor spoilers below, but as the experience is expanding and changing, what is read below may be as real as a rabbit in a hat by the time you experience it.

“If you could ever get the chance to grab it again, you will do it with vigor. Squeeze until your fingers sink into the skin and blood runs out… I am not a bad person, I’m just scared… just like you.”

One Day Die is a virtual sandbox-styled immersive experience, from the mind of Darren Lynn Bousman, creator of the acclaimed Tension Experience and Theater Macabre; Blake Vogt, a famed magician; Daniel Garcia, a creative consultant in the magic industry; and Joshua Ryan Dietz, a writer, producer and immersive creator (iConfidant). The framework consists of approximately twenty audience members interacting with live actors on a set, as well as each other, to explore the home of an occult ménage bent on restoring the life of one Ian Oddeye through a ritual. Ian is an explorer of the beyond, a man who has seen what awaits after death. In his final expedition, Ian was unable to return from this space and has been removed from the realm of the living for decades. The remnant members now believe they have devised a ritual to restore Ian, but it will require the energy of more living souls than are present in their reclusive community. For one night, they agree to open the doors of their home to those willing to tithe to them, with the agreement that all will assist in the seance to revive Ian.

Immersion into a world of pulling souls back from beyond the veil begins days before showtime with an object of great fixation, simply referred to as “The Box.” It’s about a foot long, rectangular, and of unremarkable weight. But all communication given leading up to the experience places such an emphasis on The Box and the care it needs prior to opening that it makes the mystery of what is inside unbearable. Bizarre requests, such as exposing The Box to direct moonlight or whispering hallowed secrets against it, give the simple USPS flat rate box a whole persona, or at least a reasonable suspicion that it’s transmitting personal data. The instructions are explicit in stating that The Box must stay with the participant at all times, which is as cruel as forcing a child to stare at their Christmas present for all of December.

Without spoiling the grand surprise of what The Box is, what it certainly is not is a gimmick. Psychologically, it’s a wonderful widget for building hype and mystique, but assets inside are invaluable for interacting with the story – no matter what paths are taken or alliances made. Magic and sleight of hand are a dominant motif throughout the presentation, and The Box is a tangible extension that empowers the audience to experience the enchantments empirically and even conjure some sorcery of their own. The versatility of the items in The Box are brilliantly reasoned, and many items supplied to you to assist with the ritual may be used subversively as well.

Between the personal interactions with the supplied characters, collaborative work with other patrons, and managing the materials in The Box, One Day Die is, at times, a deliberately overwhelming experience. The configuration of the in-browser app allows each user to choose from a number of rooms, which grants access to not only the video feed of what is transpiring with the cast of characters, but also the feed of every other guest currently viewing that room. Additionally, through the use of the built-in chat, or via personal texts and emails, special information or tasks may be given. By nature, it’s impossible to view every moment in each character’s arc in a single showing, but the innate desire to absorb as much knowledge as possible about the house and its inhabitants demands significant mental exertion – as well as a knack for timing one’s exit from a conversation.

Virtually stepping into a room may lead to scrambling to follow a new event, such as finding a group seven steps ahead in a complicated incantation. One particularly chaotic moment involved a seemingly quiet room containing only the madame’s son, Egan, brilliantly played by Andrew Perez, and two other viewers. While Egan was piercingly interrogating an audience member about a past sexual transgression, he suddenly collapsed to the floor, murmuring about a pill he had taken. As more audience members joined the room, the commotion of the crowd began to overwhelm any useful exchange of information between the team. Some even attempted to scream into their microphones to call for help for Egan. The freedom offered to the audience can often hinder progress, providing an extra natural layer to the planned informational overload.

After giving ample time to at least acquaint oneself with the motives of each of the members of the family, the experience hits a turning point where all activities cease and participants are herded briefly into a single room, with the choice of the next room deciding which character with whom to ally – some represent completing the ritual to restore Ian, but others may be seeking to sabotage it, or simply wish to escape the house.

The motives and stakes for the involved parties may vary, but the path to success for each is created by their supporters solving puzzles with items once again contained within The Box. The genre of the experience at this point begins to shift away from a pure immersive exhibition to something resembling a fast-paced escape room. The flood of exterior content continues here, with hidden websites assisting with clues, mysterious phone numbers spamming the chat, and saboteurs attempting to explain the dangers of helping your sympathetic character succeed. Multi-tasking skills are heavily tested here, requiring unity with the like-minded strangers in the room to filter the flood of information to decide what is useful and what is not.

Without touching upon any specific ending to Ian Oddeye’s story, the power of One Day Die lies in its ability to change opinions on its given characters even after their fates are sealed. Innocent characters become ambiguous through their own confessions. Villainous characters are revealed to be merely deeply flawed and vulnerably human. The lens by which they are judged is pushed by the supernatural circumstances – what is an acceptable price to pay to return from the abyss, knowing that only infinite nothingness awaited? What would you be willing to sacrifice to save yourself from a boundless ether? Is fear a defensible excuse for harming others to change your fate? In a world where the heavy post-mortem consequences are known, One Day Die makes a case for an uncomfortable, yet profound truth that our own lives are the most valuable commodity available, meaning that all other considerations are secondary to maintaining our being.

In an increasingly crowded field of interactive virtual experiences, One Day Die stands as a colossus against the background. The crisp presentation and execution along with a sharp narrative is enough to warrant attention, and The Box is intriguing as an icon and a tool. However, the mastery of morally ambiguous character arcs as a vehicle to reveal otherwise unappetizing truths in a late twist demonstrates a level of storytelling beyond what most productions can accomplish through a linear narrative.

For more information on One Day Die, check out their website and Instagram pages.

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