HELLO FUTURE: Inside the Future of Fear — The Science of Haunted Houses.

Kevin Cirilli steps into the darkness with Ben Armstrong, co-owner and creative mastermind behind NETHERWORLD Haunted House — the legendary Atlanta attraction that’s redefined what it means to be scared. But this isn’t just a Halloween story. Kevin and Ben explore how cutting-edge technology, psychology, and storytelling combine to create immersive fear. From AI-driven monsters and sensory illusions to the neuroscience of adrenaline and dread, they break down why our brains crave the thrill of being scared — and how that ancient instinct is being reimagined for the digital age. What happens when virtual reality, robotics, and emotion mapping collide with the oldest human emotion?
Welcome to the next frontier of entertainment — where fear meets innovation, and horror becomes high tech.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Did you see these news reports that haunted houses are
moving into virtual reality? The future of horror movies actually
might be in VR headsets, and some of these are
actually being deemed too scary. There's an article out in
video games in a bloody disgusting dot com, which I
guess is a publication that covers all of these horror movies,

(00:29):
and it says venture into a remote Arctic island in
virtual reality horror title dread Meridian. I have no desire
to do that. Hello Future, It's me keV and this
is a dispatch from the Digital Frontier. The planet is Earth.
The year is twenty twenty five. My name is Kevin Surreally,
and today I'm diving into the future of fear with

(00:51):
an eye on Halloween. And joining me today is someone
who is really at the forefront of everything artificial intelligence
and these new and emerging times technologies. His name is
doctor John Locato, and he is of the University of
South Florida's Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, and he's really
one of the leading thinkers as it relates all of

(01:13):
these different topics. He's been studying this and all of
the AI and its impacts on everything and everything that
we're doing, and John, thank you so much for joining us. So,
first of all, would you go into a virtual reality
haunted house?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Oh? Absolutely? You know, as you're describing that, I'm thinking,
what is this and where can I sign up?

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Okay, So during lockdowns, I actually did a trailer for
a horror movie. And let's just say I didn't make
it out of the VR trailer. I thought this is insane,
this is crazy. But talk to us. For those of
us who aren't really familiar with the VR industry and
how it interacts with the human consciousness different why are
these so much scarier than real haunted houses in some ways?

(01:53):
And also horror movies?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah? Sure, I mean the level of immersion is much hire.
As a simple answer, I think when you're staring at
a computer screen or looking at something on your phone, yeah,
you know, you have that conscious idea that you're not
really looking at something that's real, or you're not actually
in the environment, right, But there are also subconscious clues

(02:16):
that make it less real for you, just the fact
that there's no nothing happening in your peripheral vision, for example,
or you don't have three D sound, right. But when
you're in a virtual reality environment. All of a sudden,
you have things on the side that pop up, you
have a sound coming from every direction. You can move
your head, and it actually affects how the world appears

(02:37):
to You have light answers your eyes right, so it
affects you on a more primal level.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
So the Art Shelf that's another one of these blogs
about storytelling in the future of storytelling. Their headline, claustrophobic
virtual reality caving simulator Cave Crave deemed too scary for
game testers. Three our Games has called for help, but
they're soon to be released. Cave Crave a claustrophobic VR
caving simulator that allows gamers to crawl, climb, and squeeze

(03:06):
through tight corridors in realistic cave environment. According to developers,
the optional player requested horror mode of running from monsters
in tight tunnels is a bit too much for some testers.
This is reporting from again from the Art Shelf. I
mean it's also then an interactive experience, like what was

(03:26):
that movie? I think it was a Blair Witch project,
do you remember that where they're like videotaping themselves, but
then to be actually in a horror movie and an
immersive experience. I mean that's wild to me. What effect
does that even have on your brain as it's interacting
with you. That's different from I don't know, like the
internet or two D technology.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, there's this suspension of disbelief thing too. Right. I'm
thinking back to, you know, when radio was new, and
there's that famous case of War of the World's broadcasts, right, totally,
And it's a great ideal example. It's a great analog
because if we think about it that people were terrified
by that broadcast, some of them had no idea that
it was fake, and you know, they were calls back

(04:08):
then for a we shouldn't allow this kind of thing
on the radio, right, But now if someone were to
read War of the Worlds on the internet, nobody would
nobody would call against it, right. I see this as
a similar case. And actually it's interesting that you bring
up the Blair Witch Project movie because I remember seeing
that and you know, my friends and I walking out
of the theater terrified or were like is that real?

(04:29):
Is that based on a true story? Yeah, but it
was more terrifying because we didn't know whether it was
real or not. Right, So there's that element that makes
things a little more effective as horror devices.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
So I love that you brought up one of my
favorite facts of media history and how you're translating it
into things that have happened before with technology and humans
first interactions. Because and I'm quoting now from the Smithsodian Magazine,
on Halloween morning in nineteen thirty eight, Orson Welles woke
to find himself the most talked about man in America

(05:04):
because on Halloween Eve, Wells and his Mercury Theater on
the Air had performed a radio adaptation of H. G.
Wells's The War of the World's and he converted the
forty year old novel into a fake news bulletin describing
a Martian invasion of New Jersey. So I went to
journalism school at Penn State, and we always would learn about,

(05:25):
you know, people running into the streets. They would be
freaked out because they actually thought that the aliens or
the Martians were invading. It is very much similar with
AI being able to distort fake news images. And it's
almost as if, you know, switching gears out of VR
horror movies with the adaptation of AI. Every day, a

(05:45):
country that wants to create disinformation or groups that want
to create rogue disinformation. It's like a mini episode of
the War of the World's nineteen thirty eight incident, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
This is one of the things about AI that I'm
most afraid of anytime anybody asked me, you know, how
AI is going to impact the world. There's so many
positive things that it can help with medical diagnosis, you know,
drug discovery, all these things. But if we anytime I'm
asked about the possible negatives use of AI for generating

(06:20):
false or misleading content by bad actors is definitely up there.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Precisely. It is really just interesting though, how I mean
a question that I get asked for my friends even
is this real? Is to say, I like, what is this?
But specifically as it relates to storytelling, And I think
what I was really excited about with this particular episode
is just the new genres that are being created in
virtual reality. I think it's still open for the taking

(06:45):
for a company to have the dominant VR head set,
and there's some great things like the Apple Vision Pro
and the meta Oculous that I've engaged with. And the
thing that I always leave feeling the most inspired by
is the VR immerged and stuff. You can't cover your eyes,
you know, Like when I was watching The Sixth Sense
with m Night Shyamalan's movie. When I was a kid,

(07:07):
I could sit in the movie theater and cover my
eyes and peek through my fingers. With VR, you can't
do that. You have to take off the headset. And
your brain's interaction with the technology is so immersive to
your point, whether you're crawling through caves, chasing monsters, or
like the one thing I was, I was in a
haunted gym, which was terrifying. I never want to go

(07:29):
through that again in VR, And there's a whole genre
on these platforms for horror storytelling, and your emotion is
so manipulated in a radically different way than it is
when your emotions are manipulated watching the news or engaging
with social media or watching traditional movies. And I guess, like,

(07:53):
where is science on that, John, Where is science on
understanding how when your mind thinks something is real, it's
a more intense emotion. I don't even know, Like, you're
the genius, not me, So how do you figure that out? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (08:09):
The thing about immersion is we are always testing the
world around us, right to determine how real it is
and how we should react to it. VR by itself
is able to provide that immersive experience because if you
think about, Okay, you're in a headset environment, right, got

(08:29):
the VR world loaded, and just you know, moving my
eyes to the right and then seeing something that intuitively
should be or if I was actually in this environment
and just moving my eyes around and then moving my
head and then seeing the world around me change as
it would if that world were actually real. Those are
little micro tests that I'm doing on a sensory level

(08:50):
that makes the experience more immersive. And VR's got that
down right. VR can do that amazingly, but AI can
take that to the next level using the same style
of immersion. So with the idea that we are constantly
going to be testing this environment to see whether it's real,
and if we get feedback that we would expect of
the real world, then we believe it's more realistic. So

(09:14):
what AI can do is talking. I can talk to
NPCs in the environment, and if I don't get canned
responses back and they actually respond in a way that
a human would, it just adds to my sense of immersion.
I have seen already a lot of artists creating immersive
environments that allow for dynamic creation of content. That just

(09:38):
adds to the storytelling experience. Right. So if you imagine
you're looking at a newspaper within the virtual reality environment,
and then you'd read articles that are describing things that
you just did, that you just caused yesterday. Right, these
kinds of elements are I love it.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
There was a twenty twenty one study that was published
in MPGA Digital Medicine by scientists from the universe be
a Basle. This is according to Advanced Science News, and
it's determined that actually the exposure with virtual reality can
help lower if you're if you're if you have a
fear of heights, for example, if you use VR, it
can kind of cure some of the fears as well,
which is another interesting thing. So that exposure using virtual

(10:16):
reality to desensitize some of your fears is super interesting
as well. I know you have to run, but thank
you so much, John for showing up to meet the
future and to give us the future of fear. Maybe
watch a squeaky VR headset thing this holiday season