Dan Carlin, the host of popular history podcast Hardcore History, has lent his talents as a prolific storyteller and narrator to an upcoming location-based experience that’s set to take Tribeca 2019 attendees to the battlefields of the First World War.
War Remains is new territory for Carlin, who is best known for his long-form historical exposés that oftentimes center around the human cost of war, conquest, and the ebb and flow of empires. His Hardcore History series on the subject of WWI spans over 23 hours, told across a six-part series entitled ‘Blueprint for Armageddon’.
In War Remains however, Tribeca 2019 attendees will step into a digital VR environment matched up to a physical setting, replete with haptic feedback and special effects—all of it to bring a more potent sense of what ‘The War to End All Wars’ must have been like.
Created by Flight School and Skywalker Sound, and produced by MWM Immersive, War Remains is about “throwing audience directly into an immersive memory of the First World War,” Ethan Stearns, executive producer at MWM Immersive, told Variety.
“The project combines elements from a range of different established mediums, from games and film to interactive theater, but very few groups are doing anything quite like this,” Stearns said. “Beyond sight and sound, ‘War Remains’ enhances the participant’s sense of presence with physical haptics. Guests can literally reach out and touch the walls of the trench, and this paired with other effects like wind and floor rumblers provide a more powerful sense of immersion then you could ever feel in a movie or video game.”
In the trailer, Carlin reads an actual letter from British soldier Gunner Wilfrid Cove to his daughter Marjorie—moving words from a war weary father to his little girl who he would never see again. Cove was killed in action in 1917. The letter was found in his breast pocket.
It’s these emotional touchstones that Carlin seems to weave effortlessly through what Stearns calls an experience that’s “terrifying and exhilarating, and also very loud and even emotionally challenging.”
If you’re attending the Tribeca Film Festival, you can get tickets online for War Remains. The experience will be available from April 26th to May 4th.
MWM Immersive will also be bringing War Remains to Austin for a limited run; other markets after Austin are also on the table.
