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Heretic Actually Made Smell-O-Vision Work


A onetime-only blueberry-scent-enhanced screening of the new A24 horror movie gave a failed movie gimmick renewed purpose.

Mr. Reed returns from the kitchen claiming his wife is being shy, but he’s brought soda and a candle to his living room for Barnes and Paxton to enjoy while they try to tell him about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A 1940 issue of Variety has an item about a theater in New York that was built with the ability to pump in scents in 1916; it was used once, for a short film called Story of the Flower s. That quick abandonment is a running theme in the history of movie smells, but by far the most famous (or infamous) stab at bringing a third sense to the screen was Smell-O-Vision. Heretic ’s one-night-only scented screening is a promotional event rather than a proper release strategy, let alone a bold new vision for the future of cinema, but it makes sense that movies are revisiting the idea of heightened theatrical experiences.

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