Tag: Oculus

Top 6 (+1) “Intellectual” Horror Movies / Series

Let’s explore the world of horror which is mixed with smart storyline, twists, simple yet effective jumpscares. Mike Flanagan’s horror mocies are a must see!

The types of horror movies in this list will not just be mere ghost sightings, lights flickering, and terrible ghostly faces. You will encountering some Nolan-like concepts, twists; action, psychological twisters, concepts will scare you in an unusual way. There’s no knowing what you will find spooky or give a rush of adrenaline alongside the characters. Let’s dig in.

Also, skip the trailers. Probably read the summary and go for it. Nowadays, most of the spoilers are given in the trailers itself.

The Haunting series

The Haunting is an American television anthology series created by Mike Flanagan and produced by Amblin Television and Paramount Television, for Netflix. The first season is titled The Haunting of Hill House and the second, titled The Haunting of Bly Manor.

The haunting of the Hill House

The haunting of the Bly manor

  • THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR

Well, let me talk about Mike Flanagan. Over the period of time, I have fallen in love with his unique set of horror films. He gives a new definition to the meaning of horror. I found both these series, especially The Haunting of Hill House, lethally amazing. The twists, jump scares (One of the best jump scare I have ever come across), character growth, expertly connected forth and back storylines, flashbacks, and again twists. I got hooked it to it the moment I started seeing it. Each one of the actors are amaze!

The Haunting of Hill House, is loosely based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson. The future, present and past are all connected which led the family to the mansion, to stay in mansion, paranormal activities ….Everything is connected. There are less words to describe how much I loved this series.

The Haunting of Bly Manor, to be based on The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. There is no connection between the Hill House and this. The story tells of a young au pair hired by a man to look after his niece and nephew at the family country house after they fall into his care. Arriving at the Bly estate, she begins to see apparitions that proceed to haunt the premises. It is again an intellectual piece, there are flashbacks, twists, unexpected occurrences with a sad ending. Although it is a completely horror film, it has it’s own share of gothic vibes.

Ready or not

 After the wedding ceremony of a young woman, her new in-laws force her to participate in a seemingly innocent game. Things soon turn bloody and sinister, revealing the sick rituals of the family. It is a mandatory Hide & Seek game whereby each new spouse must pass a kind of postnuptial initiation. People are literally equipped with crossbow, pocket pistol or battle ax. It is obvious that no one is going to think that a certain family is going to take “Till Death do us apart” so seriously. The family is held together by this silly and horrific ritual. The one who gets to hide and is to be sought, the family is obligated to kill them before. If not, deadly consequences wait for them. Yes, not killing them is going to get them killed, ridiculous right? But well, when you see this crazy family being scared out of their life for having missed to shoot her or something, sums up pretty well that you are are about to go on a ride of Dark Humor, crazy humans with their crazy weapons.

Amidst this craziness, the amazing actress Samara Weaving, portrayed her character through and through. This movie is has also highlighted crazy richness, statuses, etc. in a exaggerated way of course. The reason I put this this in this list is because of her acting and all the ways she defended herself, especially in a bridal attire. For me, the hunt, plot, acting were top-notch regardless of few clichés. But, it is a totally different, new, and unique horror movie out there.

Host

Six friends accidentally invite the attention of a demonic presence during an online séance and begin noticing strange occurrences in their homes. Yes, I know séances over zoom and demonic activities sound impossible and a recipe for disaster. Personally, I am rarely spooked out, but this movie did give me few chills. In this world, where we do use zoom to attend colleges, meetings, seeing a movie made completely over Zoom gives you a totally different experience. Host, do not get confused with other Host movies, it is like a short film which was released by SHUDDER.

This movie was made on Zoom and the actors use their own lights as well. You will be hit with weird occurrences through the screens, filters on invisible ghosts, footprints on floor(Flour :p). If you want a short spooky movie, do see it in a dark from. Yes, I did it and it’s probably the reason for my chills. Nevertheless, it gives you the feeling of being in the same page with movie.

Oculus

A recently released inmate from a mental asylum learns from his sister that the murders he was convicted of committing were actually orchestrated by a supernatural entity, the Lasser Glass mirror. It is a American supernatural psychological horror film co-written, edited, and directed by Mike Flanagan.

It is not just your typical horror movie, it is an elegant piece of art; psychological thriller, and again a unique masterpiece by Mike Flanagan. As you go through the movie, you experience what they experience, you see what they see, and realize what’s happening alongside them. There are many baffling scenes, some will make your skin crawl (Not extremely in a bad way). In the end, you are just amazed and shocked by what you have seen. You also might want to punch the brother now and then.

Insidious

Insidious is a series of American horror films created by James Wan and Leigh Whannell. There are four films in the franchise—Insidious, Insidious: Chapter 2, Insidious: Chapter 3, and Insidious: The Last Key. The franchise is very well known. Each of it’s films have a plot, punches of adrenaline rush and some jumps scares.

The one that really really got my attention was “The last key” film. It is where Elise, the somewhat paranormal expert has to visit her childhood hellhouse. The demon has the power to posses one and make him act and do bad things. They have the power of completely muting someone. The connection between this and other movie in this franchise is astonishing. The jump scares are not that cliché. Overall, if u do want to watch something with quick pace, this film could be goof for you.

Lights out

Rebecca and her boyfriend try to investigate the connection between her mother and her imaginary friend, Diana, after her stepfather is murdered by a supernatural entity. This movie connects psychological wellbeing and paranormal entity to a different level. Also, it took our childhood memories of balancing on and off button in a completely bizarre way. It is basically spooky of when you can see Diana, demon with lights off. It is actually an evil concept.

It does have some really spooky, emotional, and crazy scenes. If you want a light yet scary movie to watch (At night, yes). It is a spooky movie with a simple yet functional execution. But, I do not agree with psychological use in here. Other than that, why not see all the movies for yourself and have a fine collection of spooks.

Bonus Suggestion: HUSH by Mike Flanagan. Yes, him again.

Virtual Reality: Its history and future

Virtual Reality has a brief yet rich history with many ups and downs. Even though the formal name was defined much later, there had been many attempts that resembled the Virtual Reality that we know it as today. Let’s first define the goal of Virtual Reality. It is to trick the brain to believe that something is real with the help of virtual elements, these elements can be auditory (sound) or visual (sight). But there are many parallel definitions of VR but one of the essential differentiating factors of Virtual Reality compared to other forms of media is that VR has some sort of interactivity. Unlike Movies or 3D movies where a person can only view but not interact, VR facilitates the freedom to touch, interact and control what a person sees on their screen.

History of VR

The fascination with VR goes way back to the 1930s when science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum wrote a story where he mentions about Pygmalion’s spectacles. The wearer would be able to experience the virtual world. VR was further popularized by the popular Sci-fi movie, Star Trek: The Next Generation and its Holodeck.  

­One of the first examples of VR HMD (Head Mounted Display) was ‘Sword of Damocles’ developed by Ivan Sutherland and his student Bob Sproull. The HMD was connected to a computer. The contraption setup was intimidating, cumbersome, and heavy. The graphics that were shown if the HMD were quite simplistic and trivial, but it was a convincing step towards the VR we know today. The term ‘VR’ was popularized in the 1980s by Jaron Lanier. By the end of the 1980s, NASA with the assistance of Crystal River Engineering, created Project VIEW. It was a VR simulator that was developed to train the astronauts. The 1990s saw the use of VR in multimedia and mainstream commercial spaces. Numerous virtual reality arcades were introduced in the public spaces where players could play games with immersive stereoscopic 3D visuals. The mid-1990s saw the VR foray by console manufacturers. Nintendo and SEGA both showcased their VR gaming headsets but both were a commercial failure due to technical limitations and lack of software support.

In 2012 Oculus Kickstarter had raised 2.5 million dollars and this gave the startup a monetary jumpstart that previous VR projects were not able to attain. In 2014 Facebook bought the Oculus and this ensured that the VR startup would be adequately funded in their VR developments. 2014 also saw the launch of numerous other VR developments like Google cardboard, Sony PSVR and Samsung Gear VR. In 2016 HTC released its advanced VR headset, HTC Vive. Now the focus was to make VR truly standalone free from the assistance of a dedicated computer or a smartphone.

The Future

The Future of VR looks bright, there are many factors for this but one of the major factors is the price of VR has significantly gone down. There are continual developments in the sphere of VR and various new technological innovations are attempting to make the adoption of VR much more seamless, comfortable and intuitive to use. The use of VR is not just limited to gaming but now VR is also used for many commercial and business purposes. Recently Microsoft signed an agreement with the US government to supply 120,000 semi-custom versions of Hololens VR/AR headsets. VR is increasingly used in the health and manufacturing sectors as well. With a compound annual growth of 21.6% from 2020 to 2027, it seems that VR is only going to get more mainstream in the future.

References:

https://nix-united.com/blog/the-past-present-future-of-virtual-reality/

https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/history.html