A plane crash in complete darkness? My experience at Darkfield was both terrifying and enlightening

Ever thought about what it would be like to be a ghost? Floating around, haunting a hotel ravaged by fire? 

Eulogy is the latest immersive sound experience from Melbourne company Realscape Productions, the team behind the brilliantly scary Séance, which has had two successful runs in Melbourne. That experience was legitimately terrifying, conjuring up nefarious spirits inside a shipping container using nothing but cutting edge 3D sound design and some lowkey seat vibrations. 

This time around, the creators ask you to be plunged into darkness to explore "the relative merits of an embodied human conscious experience, versus one that only exists in the imagination." We don't know exactly what to expect from Eulogy, and that's part of the fun. What we do know is that the shipping container has been fitted out with a scary-looking line of transparent caged sections, each with a set of headphones.

All we can really hope for is that we can emerge safely, back in our corporeal body when it's all over, but judging by past Darkfield experiences, anything is possible.

Are you scared of the idea of being trapped inside your body? Hearing people around you making decisions, talking about you, without being able to respond? Well this may (or may not) be your next opportunity to confront your fears.

Coma is the latest immersive sound experience from Melbourne company Realscape Productions, the team behind the brilliantly scary Séance, which has had two successful runs in Melbourne. That experience was legitimately terrifying, conjuring up nefarious spirits inside a shipping container using nothing but cutting edge 3D sound design and some lowkey seat vibrations. 

We don't know exactly what to expect from Coma, and that's part of the fun. What we do know is that the shipping container has been fitted out with medical-style bunk beds, and we're told that "the moment of waking is actually when your dream begins". All we can really hope for is that we're alive when we emerge, but judging by the recommendation to "take your body with you when you leave," we're not exactly hopeful.

You know the drill: check your boarding pass, find your assigned seat, stow your baggage in the overhead bin and fasten your seatbelt. Make sure your tray table is in the upright position, and make sure your window blind is open for takeoff. On a monitor in front of you, a flight attendant in a blue uniform details the safety features of this aircraft. She explains that you should take a minute to find your nearest exit, bearing in mind it might be behind you. As she adjusts her pink scarf, she... wait a minute, wasn't her uniform blue? The screen flickers and she's back to blue, and you wonder if you imagined the pink. And then the lights go out. 

This is Flight, the latest immersive sound experience from Melbourne company Realscape Productions, the team behind the brilliantly scary Séance, which has had two successful runs in Melbourne. That experience was legitimately terrifying, conjuring up nefarious spirits inside a shipping container using nothing but cutting-edge 3D sound design and a few vibrations. 

Flight is also in a shipping container, but inside it's been fitted out to look exactly like a plane, including overhead bins, real plane seats and real plane window blinds. If you find real planes uncomfortable, physically or mentally, you'll find this one uncomfortable. And that's before the plane plunges into complete, pitch-black darkness. And then the screaming begins.

Those with anxiety about flying will find Flight a nightmarish recreation of their worst fears. The clever use of directional sound in high-end headphones creates a complete narrative, as it sounds like those around you are getting up, talking to each other and to you, making strange decisions, whispering to each other – and to you. Those headphones, the realistic set design and some clever surprises put you in the world of a doomed flight. The show only lasts about half an hour. But by that time you'll be searching for your nearest exit, bearing in mind that it might be behind you.

"It's only 20 minutes," I think to myself. "How scary could it get for 20 minutes?" 

I'm sitting in a pitch-black shipping container with my hands on a table in front of me and noise-cancelling headphones over my ears. The headphones are the only sensory input I have – for now, at least. And what they're telling me is pretty damn scary.

Séance is an immersive sound experience created by Brits Glen Neath and David Rosenberg, in collaboration with Melbourne team Realscape Productions. It relies on psychology and our inclination towards superstition to alter guests’ perception of reality, all while never leaving the shipping container. 

But boy howdy, it sure feels like you are in a real séance. The host of the séance goes around to each guest in turn, asking if they are alone, asking if they are believers, and giving instructions. The soundscape is exquisitely precise – I could point with unerring accuracy to where in the room the host is at each moment, and I dread the time when he comes to ask me some hard questions. 

And of course, as is usually the case with séances in art, things don't go strictly to plan, and spirits don't stay contained in the places you'd hope. That's when things get really scary – and 20 minutes will feel like a lot more.