As I looked up, raindrops fell directly into my eyes, sending a chill tingling up my shirt. I felt cold and damp.
But I shouldn’t have, because in reality I was sitting in an anonymous conference room in Apple’s midtown offices. The sensation came midway through Ti West’s newest film, “Remnants,” a 27-minute chiller designed exclusively for the tech giant’s Apple Vision Pro headset.
West is a well-known horror auteur, making his name with films like the 2009 low-budget thriller “The House of the Devil” and the well-received trilogy of 2022’s “X,” 2022’s “Pearl” and 2024’s “Maxxxine.” Two weeks ago, I thought his only upcoming project was the holiday film “Ebenezer,” which doesn’t seem to be a scary movie (outside of starring Johnny Depp). So when I saw a social post that “Remnants” was dropping as a spooky season treat, I reached out for a screening.
The film was released for free on Oct. 16 to Vision Pro users, and despite not throwing serious money behind a campaign for it, articles like this are presumably the best marketing Apple could get for their newest innovation. Arriving at their offices to meet with two charming marketing folks, we worked first to acclimate me to the headset. I’ve spent a fair amount of time with similar tech, but they’ve seemed to be novelties compared to the brain-busting futurism of the Vision Pro.
“Oh, so this is ‘Minority Report,’ minus the bad stuff,” I snarked aloud a few minutes into the demo. Once you’re strapped into the device, the UX is surprisingly intuitive if you’re an iPhone user. The icons remain the same, and Apple’s simplicity is consistent, but things become pretty mind-blowing after the Vision Pro calibrates to your eyes and hands. At this point, your eyes become the cursor, and you touch your fingertips together to select something. I must admit it’s both freaky and cool, and actually closer to “Minority Report” than I first believed. Within minutes, I was rolling my eyeballs around and clicking with my thumb and forefinger. Apps were bending to my will. Call me naive, but how is this tech already here?
My first glimpse of the immersive filmmaking I was searching for was a slick demo the Apple folks showed me, all of which was shot in 180-degree 3D 8K Apple Immersive Video with Spatial Audio, technology that has only been available for a few months.
Again, the difference was a cosmic leap compared to headsets of yore. At once, I was onstage at a Metallica concert, staring at James Hetfield’s leathery skin as he barked directly in my face. Then I was trapped on a submarine as a bunch of sailors tried to stop a very bad leak, and it felt like I was being waterboarded by a big pipe. A nature scene put me in the middle of a gaggle of orangutans, as I twisted my head to see them roaming everywhere. When I returned my gaze forward, one came within an inch of my nose and stared me down, shattering the fourth wall.
It was all very impressive, and I was informed I was prepped enough to start “Remnants.” The plot is paper-thin, but perfect for a short film demo such as this: In 1886 London, Eleanor (Lucy Boynton) is determined to appraise the abandoned Woldmere Castle, despite the warnings of a local (Ralph Ineson) who tells her that the mansion is, of course, haunted.
The film opens with the pair meeting at an old-timey pub, and it was surprising how the immersiveness evoked random senses. Not only could I see their hushed conversation very closely, but I had time to peek around the bar scene. The production design spared no expense, and it felt like I could actually smell the stale beer on the floor, as the drunks in another part of the room carried on their conversation. Despite the story being simple, I was thankful that it didn’t need my full attention, as I was swinging my head around, feeling transported through time with locals glugging their ale.
Here’s where the visuals must come into consideration a bit more directly: while impressively enveloping you in the story, the same frame rate issue that drives cinephiles mad is very present, evoking both TV motion smoothing and Peter Jackson’s high frame rate “Hobbit” movies. The same feedback persists: things look so real that they appear fake, like a cheap soap opera vs. a lush movie. I find myself generally less scandalized than most about this, as I can look at the experience as “other” enough to get in the right state of mind.
Nevertheless, strange effects do exist. Boynton has a gorgeous and expressive face, which is on display for a large portion of the film. And yet I found myself drawn to details that would normally be masked in cinema, like the application lines of her lipstick and how makeup sat on her skin. As I type that, it sounds supremely creepy — but the effect was much more analogous to a bong rip that sends you over the edge, and you find yourself staring and obsessing over minute details in your surroundings.
But once you snap your head back into the production, there’s no doubt the impact of feeling like you’re living a horror movie alongside the protagonist. In the manor, I found myself obsessively looking around the grand staircase, keeping an eye out for apparitions; in large, curtained rooms, I scanned for clues before Eleanor could; jump scares got in my face and made me yelp; and an icky scene in which a character got muddied had me itching in a shared discomfort.
And there were some truly Wow! moments that recontextualized horror tropes, from the aforementioned rain to a spiritual visitor appearing to walk THROUGH you, to participation in an under-the-covers hiding session to peeking under the bed with the protagonist in case a monster is lying in wait.
It was a fun half hour, but as I left the offices and was greeted with real sunshine, I struggled to piece together what I had seen into any future forecasting. In a way, I was left with even more questions:
- The team was professional and coy about what else Apple wants to do with immersive film, but a full-length feature feels inevitable. Would my head ache with the headset on for 90 minutes? Would I get motion sick with my eyes processing that much information quickly?
- Is the goal to have audiences wear the headsets for much of the day? The Apple folks I spoke with were enthusiastic about them, with one sharing that she used it as her primary device during the day. Another said he used it frequently to watch sports when his wife went to bed early, which does seem like a pretty solid use case.
- It’d be fun to see something viciously scary in the format — while the PG-13 “Remnants” looks great, the scariest part of the afternoon was Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich sticking his tongue out with bulging eyes while playing in concert.
It will be interesting to see the future of the device, given the sticker shock that hit me when finally Googling the specs. I assumed the Apple Vision Pro would sell for about $1,000, so imagine my surprise finding out the simplest model, the 256GB, retails for $3,699.
It’s an eye-watering price tag for a glimpse of the future. And as cool as immersive viewing is, it seems stalled except for the ultra-wealthy.
Watch the featurette below to get a feel for “Remnants.”