That's the scenario that you're almost experiencing when stepping into one of the two shipping containers Darkfield is placing out the front of the Canberra Theatre this month.

Almost, being the key word. Because while you may be sitting in what looks like the economy section of an Airbus A320 as the "plane" goes down, you are still, after all, in a 40-foot shipping container. And aside from a sign reading "Flight" - the title of this experience - it's a nondescript shipping container as well.

In fact, if it wasn't for the sign, you wouldn't be able to distinguish it from its neighbour, Séance.

Like its neighbour, the insides of Séance are nothing like its exterior. But where Flight appears to be like a plane, stepping into Séance is like stepping into a Victorian drawing room. With a big long table, running down the centre, you take a seat as a séance commences, completely in the dark.

Because that is the trick with these two experiences from Darkfield. By making everything pitch black - "so you can't see the hand in front of your face", as creator David Rosenberg says - you can let the senses run wild, as a 360-degree audio experience plays out.

"The darkness itself sort of has a texture to it almost," Rosenberg says.

"It feels velvety. It's like you're in the middle of something that is a textured material - it's very strange. And in that level of darkness or grey, it really does play tricks with you."

It may seem like an odd scenario to willingly put yourself in. Sure, you know that it's safe to step into a simulator, but it's also a simulator that is designed to heighten your fears of what could be a real and existing fear. In these cases, the fear of flying or the fear of the supernatural.

But people love the adrenaline rush. It's what's kept horror movies in business. Séances - the real ones, not the simulated ones - have been played out for (among other reasons) the same purpose of entertaining through fear for centuries.

That same purpose has proved to be a success for Darkfield across the world, with multiple different experiences playing out through different scenarios, to induce fear. And Flight and Séance just happen to be their most popular ones - they attracted 62,000 Sydneysiders last year.

"There's the kind of thrill side to the shows, which is very much the experiential side," Rosenberg says.

"But also, I think that our work also tries to look at more existential fears and concerns that people have. So things that are related more to the idea of what reality is and what consciousness is. So all of these things lie at the heart of the content of the work, as well as this intense, thrilling experience.

"Even though I've seen both the shows, certainly hundreds of times, there are still things that fool me. And they are very much live events. It's all about your audience and experiencing these things as a community together."

Darkfield's Séance and Flight will be outside the Canberra Theatre from March 28 to April 14. For tickets go to canberratheatrecentre.com.au.