The future of cinema could be a 360-degree viewing experience if Oculus Rift takes centre stage. The first film has been released that takes advantage of the Oculus hardware, it's called Banshee Chapter.

Banshee Chapter itself was originally a horror film for video on demand. It has since been adapted to work with the Rift and was released free on Oculus on Friday.

The film was produced by actor Zachary Quinto of Star Trek and Heroes fame. The adaptation was carried out by Jamwix studios which created software that simulates placing the viewer inside the scenes. Since this was an after-thought adaptation it doesn't take full advantage of the Oculus Rift's 360-degree view but is limited to 120-degrees. This is a still a far wider field of view than most films and should offer a more immersive experience.

The film is available for free now but only works with the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 and Mac machines. The idea, at this stage, is to show how immersive movies on the Rift can be.

We recently tried an Oculus Rift experience in association with the film Interstellar. It was a full 360-degree experience inside the space ship featured in the film. After that we've been eager for films to use Oculus Rift, perhaps this is the start.

READ: We've tried the Oculus Rift Interstellar IMAX experience, you can too