Meta Connect 2025 was kind of a disaster. The annual keynote revealing Meta’s upcoming tech and VR innovations was once again hosted by energy-vampire-in-chief Mark Zuckerberg, which was already a bad start, but then none of the fancy new AI stuff he brought to show off seemed to work right. Watching the Zuck sweat in front of Congress is fun, but watching him sweat on stage because his robot sunglasses won’t obey him? Less compelling.
Some props are due for trying to do live demonstrations, but watching Zuckerberg nervously wander around on stage while muttering about bad Wi-Fi didn’t inspire a lot of confidence in the new $800 Meta Ray-Ban glasses. Hands-on impressions have been a lot more promising, thankfully, but I still think I’ll hold off until Gen 2.
While Zuckerberg floundered and the live AI cooking demonstration fell apart before it even started, there was one exciting announcement that managed to save the entire show, in part because it’s coming to a platform many of us already own. Horror studio Blumhouse is bringing its most popular movies to Quest headsets, featuring new immersive effects as part of its Blumhouse Enhanced Cinema project. Film lovers are grossly underserved by VR currently, but this could give the format the shot in the arm it needs to finally take off.
M3GAN and The Black Phone Are Coming To Quest With New Immersive Effects
The Quest 3 is a fantastic platform for film and TV streaming that has yet to see its full potential realized. There’s only a smattering of streaming apps on the Quest, and they all leave a lot to be desired. Some, like Prime Video, don’t work at all, while the ones that do lack a lot of basic features. I’d love it if the YouTube app offered a mini-player so I could watch videos while I’m playing games, but right now it doesn’t even load my channel subscriptions correctly.
Meta is pouring some much-needed love into Quest with the new Horizon TV app, a hub space for watching Peacock, Prime Video, Twitch, YouTube, and soon, Disney+, ESPN, and Hulu. Horizon TV supports Dolby Atmos surround sound, and Meta says it will also support Dolby Vision by the end of the year. Hopefully, this will ensure that the streaming apps stay updated and functional on the Quest. Next to the actual cinema, VR offers the most immersive way to watch, and it’s good to see Meta finally giving streaming the attention it deserves.
It’s even better to see a major studio like Blumhouse investing in VR. Earlier this year, Blumhouse launched the Horrorverse in Horizon Worlds, which included multiplayer games, social spaces, and a screening room for clips and trailers of upcoming movies. In the new Horizon TV app, Blumhouse is bringing two of its biggest movies, M3GAN and The Black Phone, to VR, in a pretty cool way.
We only got a little tease of what Blumhouse’s Enhanced Cinema can do, but it’s enough to spark the imagination. The viewing environment will change based on the setting of a scene, so when M3GAN is chasing the school bully in the woods, your virtual surroundings will become the woods too. Some effects, like explosions or blood splatter, will burst out of the screen into the virtual environment too. If you get freaked out by jump scares, just wait until the monster leaps out of the screen and into the (virtual) room with you.
Enhanced Cinema Has So Much Potential In VR
It’s gimmicky, but Enhanced Cinema is a perfect fit for VR and horror. While these kinds of effects won’t enhance every kind of movie, it’s easy to imagine a lot of experiences that would benefit from some VR magic. Picture being transported inside the Death Star during Princess Leia’s rescue mission. Every errant shot from a stormtrooper flies out of the screen and bounces off a corner of your room. Or imagine watching Toy Story in Andy’s room on a giant Barbie TV while green army men put Mr. Potato Head back together in the background. I’m actually surprised Blumhouse jumped on this opportunity before James Cameron did for the next Avatar movie.
I hope Enhanced Cinema is as cool as it sounds, and that it’s successful. VR movie watching is incredibly underrated. Watching movies and TV shows on a virtual 100-inch screen is pretty spectacular, and a lot cheaper than going to the movies every week these days, or investing in a home theater projector, for that matter. It’s the kind of VR innovation that meets people where they already are, rather than trying to get them invested in something new. LiveAI and the Ray-Ban Displays may become mainstream eventually, but Enhanced Cinema is just a cool way to watch movies on a giant screen, and who doesn’t want that?
0 Comments