Cinema owners and studios are always looking for fresh ways to drag us from the couch and back to their screens.

But while 3D continues its return to popularity, can it actually survive this time? And what other so-called “immersive” tricks are out there?

A company called D-Box Technologies is planning to install shaker boxes in cinema seats for the release of Fast & Furious, to give filmgoers’ arses the experience akin to video game rumble packs. We thought we’d look back at other attempts to shake things up...
 

Smell-O-Vision!

History lesson: For the 1960 film Scent Of Mystery, film producer Mike Todd Jr decided to try a system adapted from Hans Laube’s technique (demoed at the 1939 World’s Fair) of pumping perfume and other scents from pipes at the back of seats.

Was it successful? It stank. Literally. Audiences were distracted by the sounds of hissing (maybe Snakes On A Plane should’ve tried just that bit?) and the aromas tended to hit people a little too late to match up with the action on screen. Fail!

Could it work today? Actually, it’s still being tried. John Waters used scratch ‘n’ sniff cards for 1982’s Polyester (the smells included flowers… mmm! Pizza… Yum! And, er, s**t. Hooray?)

And in Japan, they’ve been pioneering a return of the form, including a version for Terence Malick’s The New World. Anyone up for Colin Farrell’s armpit sweat wafting across their nostril hairs? OH SWEET MOTHER MAKE IT STOP!