An apparatus worn as headgear providing visual effects and vision to the wearer. The apparatus includes a shell or helmet. The apparatus includes an optical assembly mounted in the interior space of the shell adjacent eye slits or opening(s) to the interior space of the shell. The optical assembly includes an outer screen (e.g., a film of polymer-dispersed liquid crystal) switchable between a rear projection (RP) screen state in which the outer screen is cloudy or translucent and a transparent state. The optical assembly includes a backlighting assembly with numerous lights. The optical assembly includes a controller switching, at a rate greater than the flicker fusion rate, between a first operating state with the outer screen in the RP screen state and the lights on to illuminate the outer screen and a second operating state with the outer screen in the transparent state and the lights off.