Indulge Your Inner Voyeur with ‘Fire Escape’ (Review)

by Kathryn Yu
Kathryn Yu
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October 16, 2018
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4 min read

Peek into the lives of your neighbors in this virtual reality thriller by iNK Stories

Clouds hover over an old, run down apartment building in Brooklyn covered in graffiti. The skyscrapers of Manhattan twinkle in the distance. It’s overcast but they say there’s going to be a blood moon tonight.

And I, the viewer, am blessed with a bird’s eye view of all of my neighbors in the building next door, as I watch from my fire escape nearby.

There’s something in the air… something bad.

iNK Stories (Hero, Blindfold, 1979 Revolution) has recently released all three episodes of their interactive VR experience Fire Escape on the Google Daydream, with other platforms soon to come. Inspired by films such as Rear Mirror, the participant becomes a fly on the wall during one fateful night in which the lives of a single building’s tenants become entangled in a grisly murder… a murder where everybody’s a suspect. Each of the three chapters covers two hours of the same night, the 8:00pm, 10:00pm, and 12:00am. Chapters one premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, but chapters two and three have only recently become available for at home viewing, as well at the occasional festival pop-up.

Fans who enjoy “open world” or “sandbox” immersive theatre experiences will likely enjoy the ability to follow multiple simultaneous storylines in Fire Escape. Simply point your controller (which appears in-world as a smartphone) towards the apartment you wish to spy upon and click. You’ll instantly zoom into the scene happening in that apartment. Bored of the pregnant lady stabbing some pineapple jello? Simply click back out and choose another apartment to creep on. Maybe you’re more interested in the fellow who appears to be a wannabe cop with a disturbing setup in his living room involving a camcorder and a mannequin? Or the woman who appears to have an enormous crow for a pet? Or, you can stay where you are on the fire escape and let the action come to you, as the shady landlord Jared (Todd Soley) argues with the building’s long-time superintendent Sal (Edward Jackson) about evicting all of the tenants several yards below. And perhaps the high-powered laywer Jackie (Michelle Lukes) will come out onto their balcony to argue with her girlfriend Zoe (Giselle Gilbert). And similar to multi-tracked immersive theatre shows, the characters often all converge in the same place for important events in the story, so you don’t have to worry about missing out.

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The characters of Fire Escape also interact with you the viewer at times, probing for your interpretation of the events you’ve just witnessed. ASMR Sweetie (played the real-life YouTube star ASMR Darling) and other characters may phone you up on your virtual smartphone as you watch them from afar. During these conversations you, the participant, may be asked a question and have the ability to reply via text message from a list of canned responses or various emoji. The characters acknowledge your reply as well as the speed with which you chose a response, a clever touch that reminded me of walking simulator games like Firewatch.

And as the mystery deepens, your decisions can influence the outcome of the narrative, meaning that the full series can be played through multiple times. (One of the creators hinted at a recent screening at the New York Film Festival’s Convergence arm that there’s more than one ending available.) The viewer stays perched on the fire escape for the entirety of the experience, but I found the ability to change my perspective and jump from storyline to storyline quite compelling. The series is also technologically impressive given that it’s all designed to be lean enough to work on Google’s VR-capable phones (sans PC), which is not an easy feat.

The Fire Escape experience is suspenseful, engrossing, and also just plain fun as you get to know the quirky inhabitants of this apartment building. I couldn’t click to the next episode fast enough as soon as the previous one had ended, and by the time I took the headset off, my heart pounding, I hadn’t realized that 45 minutes had already passed. I immediately wanted to go through it again, choosing a different path this time.

Fire Escape illuminates the stories of the strangers who you might pass on the street or stand in line at the grocery store with, and never truly meet, let along actually talk to. And what New Yorker hasn’t peered out the window, wondering what’s happening in the apartments of the buildings across the street? Now, with Fire Escape, you can sneak a peek. Just be careful of what you might find.

Fire Escape is available for the Google Daydream now. The first chapter is free.

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