Haunted Houses Go Virtual with HauntPortal
Afraid fear itself might be canceled this Halloween? Fear not! With AUGXIST HauntPortal you can attend this season’s top-rated haunted attractions from the comfort and safety of your very own home. HauntPortal.com allows individual users—alongside up to five friends—to browse an online catalog of the nation’s spookiest haunted houses and theme parks, purchase tickets, and embark on private walkthroughs of selected venues, all without the need for special equipment.
Available on desktop or mobile devices, HauntPortal users can hear and interact with one another as they navigate some of the most sinister locations in the world—warn friends of the dangers lurking around every corner, then react to their screams as if you were standing right next to them! Developed with the latest in “Remote Presence” technology, HauntPortal delivers an immersive “it’s like you’re really there” Virtual Reality experience that’s sure to get your skin crawling in no time.
The following attractions will be immediately accessible upon launch:
- Pennhurst Asylum – Spring City, PA: https://pennhurstasylum.com
Coming soon:
- Woods of Terror – Greensboro, NC: https://woodsofterror.com
- The Mortuary – New Orleans, LA: https://themortuary.net/
- Bennett’s Curse – Baltimore County, MD: https://bennettscurse.com
- The Haunt – Grand Rapids, MI: https://the-haunt.com/
“Like many small business owners, I’ve worried about the ramifications of COVID-19 on our entire industry,” said Eric Hagood, owner/operator of the Sacramento-based scare park DireWorld and developer of AUGXIST. “We’re excited about HauntPortal’s potential to revolutionize the virtual and live events space. We can’t wait to bring Halloween to life in living rooms across the country—not just this season, but on haunted days of all varieties in the months and years to come.”
How it Works:
The HauntPortal OTT platform supplies users with a catalog of haunted attractions, all of which have been captured in cinematic Virtual Reality via the Insta360 Titan Professional 360 VR 3D camera in order to provide a groundbreaking immersive and social online experience. Users enter the hauntportal.com site, browse available attractions, select an attraction, and invite up to five friends to purchase individual tickets.
All members of a group log on and enter the same virtual Lobby. Once inside, guests are able to hear and speak to one another in a group audio chat. As soon as each ticket-holder has signed on, any member of the group may select “Enter Portal” to begin the 360 video playback. Users will continue communicating via audio chat and/or video, as they navigate the attraction, collectively experiencing the frights, thrills, terrors, and jump-scares. At the end of the experience, users are directed back to the Lobby, where they may choose to go again (each ticket provides unlimited re-entries for 48 hours), invite new friends to join, or browse for and purchase tickets to different attractions.