How VR 360º Impacts the Immersion of the Viewer of Suspense AV Content

Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly a tempting option for creators seeking more immersive VR audiovisual experiences. In the suspense genre, VR promises to deliver a more impactful experience to the viewers. Nevertheless, it's needed to confirm if such promise is real. This study focused on the creation of a suspense genre content to understand the impact on the immersive experience of the viewer if presented in stereoscopy VR 360º. An evaluation was developed, with a convenience sample of 36 participants. The immersive differences were evaluated when viewing the same audiovisual content of suspense in different formats: VR 360º; 360º; 2D. The results showed that the VR 360º intensifies the perceptual immersion, but diminishes the narrative immersion, a consequence of the 360º.