Why Some ‘Heretic’ Screenings Come With Smell-O-Vision

The horror movie Heretic starring Hugh Grant is surprisingly focused on food. Some Heretic screenings are making use of a marketing ploy called Smell-O-Vision. The directors of the film had a strong reaction to this decision — which they did not make themselves.

The idea of using Smell-O-Vision at ‘Heretic’ screenings made the director’s laugh

We don’t think about it, but a lot of horror films center on food. From the barbecue of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to the meat pies of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street to the stuff from The Stuff, we occasionally find horror in what’s on our plates. Heretic might be the first scary movie with a plot that revolves around blueberry pie. Interestingly, some theaters are showing the film with a Smell-O-Vision gimmick that lets viewers smell blueberry pie while the film plays.

During a 2024 interview with GQ, Heretic director Bryan Woods discussed this unusual marketing ploy. “It was a crazy idea that [film studio] A24 came to us with, and frankly, it made us laugh,” he recalled. “They’re doing it in [indie cinema chain] Alamo Drafthouses, where you’re already talking about bringing food into the building while you watch a movie, so the idea of resurrecting a multi-sensory experience as a theatrical gimmick is extremely amusing to us. And [co-director] Scott [Beck] and I are huge proponents of the theatrical experience. Whatever gets people to go to the movie theater, that is where it’s at with us.”

The directors of ‘Heretic’ said horror is the exception these days

Beck was asked why horror movies seem to do well in the streaming era — an era where movie theaters seem to be in terminal decline. “I think because people like being provoked; if they’re living relatively safe lives, it’s a way to go into the darkness in a safe space,” he replied. “I also think horror is a unique Trojan horse to wedge in headier ideas, things that might challenge you.”

Woods got a little more provocative. “I wonder, and maybe this is a controversial thing to say, have movies just gotten boring?” he said. “And to your point, Scott, horror is provocative by its nature, and there’s something exciting about going to a horror movie.”

Is using Smell-O-Vision at movie screenings a good idea?

Horror movies provoke people. Smell-O-Vision provokes as well. On one level, getting a big whiff of blueberry pie during a movie screening is a sensual experience. On top of that, some people see Smell-O-Vision as a low-class idea that should have been left behind with 3-D and many other goofy gimmicks that B-movie studios used to get people in theaters during the 1950s. Heretic was made by arthouse studio A24 and it seems designed to be taken seriously. That makes its use of Smell-O-Vision feel out of place.

On top of that, the world seems more and more infatuated with camp humor. A24’s willingness to work a little joke into certain screenings shows that they don’t take themselves overly seriously. It’s also nice to see that Hollywood is beginning to realize that they might have to market films more creatively.

Whether you like Heretic or not, it’s nice to see an old gimmick come back.