View: The Man in the Tuskhut
- ThomM
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
A life spent alone in a snowed-in wilderness cabin can do a lot of things to a man: deep thoughts, total recall, or complete madness. Which is it with this Arctic recluse?
Immersive Scene Los Angeles 2026 Review
When the man who calls himself Henry James Entrikin invites you into his small cabin, or the tuskhut, as he’s named it, you enter with a bit of trepidation. Why does this known recluse now welcome a visitor in his otherwise solitary day, solitary life, really? You’ve already learned a little bit about the curious old man from a short documentary-like film that plays in the adjoining small movie theatre, which is required viewing before your private encounter.
Entrikin, the film explains, grew up in the Dakotas, and was at an early age abandoned by his father, who went off into the wilds. Years later, his son, Henry, would essentially do the same by venturing far north into the Canadian wilderness, eventually building his humble abode on Babbin Island in the frozen Arctic. He only returned to the States once, to father a child, before soon turning his back on it all again for a permanent, solo existence in the frozen tundra.
What kind of person would do this, and why? The questions are already forming as you await entry into the foreboding cabin.
And now you meet him. Folksy and surprisingly affable at first, and extraordinarily interested in the facts of your life as you talk with him, the snow-blind Entrikin offers the warmth of his fire, a cup of barley tea, and a slew of cleverly-spoken witticisms about the tuskhut and his life in the snowy wilderness. But mostly he has numerous questions about you, and the answers he’s able to pry about the human sitting across from him on the cot are his unwavering focus. The fireside chat is as warm as the logs that burn in his stove, as Henry enthusiastically discusses family, literature, food, survival and you. But soon the mood seems to shift as you sense that your host may not be quite the man he first appeared to be. Perhaps you shouldn’t have shared so much. Maybe the bitter cold outside would have been the smarter choice. But it’s too late for that now.
The Man in the Tuskhut is unlike any other immersive/interactive experience I’ve attended. This solo encounter with an animatronic figure who eerily resembles a real man in the dim light of the cabin is enthralling, mysterious and utterly fascinating, in particular Henry himself, as a storyteller, fully realized character and technical achievement. According to the creators, a “suite of technologies” is employed here to give the creation its life force, and with only a few minor blips to remind you that the man isn’t really a man at all, the twenty-minute conversation is an intriguing trip through the mind of a complicated individual, combined with a clever marriage of animatronics, AI innovation, and old-school practical effects.
On arrival at the Man in the Tuskhut – a collaborative partnership with the show’s location, the Velaslavasay Panorama, and Immersive Research Media Associates (IRMA 360) and Incident - you’ll find yourself standing, somehow, in the frigid Arctic cold of the 1920s before being beckoned into the cabin for your personal chat with the human-like brainchild of the above creative teams. The transition from modern, heat-wave plagued Los Angeles to the snowy, frozen vastness of the far north is seamlessly realized.
The VP, a captivating destination all its own, features, amongst its many charms, a 360-degree living panorama of the Chinese city of Shenyang circa 1920, an outdoor wild west frontier saloon, unexpected verdant green spaces to wander, a former early 20th Century silent-film theatre (reportedly L.A.’s oldest cinema hall, and where you’ll watch the doc-like movie about Entrikin), and, of course, the Nova Tuskhut itself, where the drama unfolds. Somehow, this eclectic collection of spaces symbiotically becomes the perfect setting for an immersive piece set in the past but feeling organically placed in this modern-as-old environment.
There’s much more that could be told here, but out of respect for the creators* of The Man in the Tuskhut, and not wanting to spoil the secrets of this imaginative mystery, we’ll leave it at that - other than to say, we highly recommend you book a chat time to meet the enigmatic man soon (slots seem to sell out nearly as fast as they’re added month to month). There’s really nothing else out there that seems anything like it – a bridge between the old and the new.
by Thom Mills for Immersive Scene Los Angeles
at The Velaslavasay Panorama
1122 West 24th Street
Los Angeles
Tickets: $45.00
*The Man in the Tuskhut is co-created by the Velaslavasay Panorama, Immersive Research Media Associates IRMA 360 (Sara Velas & Ruby Carlson) and Incident, a secretive new experiential entertainment company from Jason Woliner (Paul T. Goldman) and Eric Notarnicola.
