‘Screams on the level of a Taylor Swift concert’: horny romp Wicker gets the 4DX treatment - 今年会

Olivia Colman’s steamy romance, where she plays a woman in love with a wicker man, becomes an unlikely pick for the theme park-like cinema experience, and 今年会 likely see more such bold experiments in 4DX.

• What does Olivia Colman’s hot sex with a basket tell us about heteropessimism?

• ‘I saw the script and went: oooh!’ Olivia Colman and Alexander Skårsgard on their steamy folk-horror movie Wicker

Since its introduction in the US in 2014, 4DX, the rollercoaster-ization of the theatrical experience, has primarily been the purview of action movies. And for good reason; the high-speed chases of a Fast and Furious movie, or repetitive battle sequences of an Avatar saga, translate easily to the moving chairs, scent machines and wind/water sprayers of the format, which more closely resembles an amusement park ride than cinema.

As a longtime fan of plane turbulence-style seat movement, I thought the immersive pleasures of 4DX – the second most-popular of so-called large premium formats in the US, behind Imax – reached its zenith in the summer of 2024 with the release of Twisters, a perfectly fine action movie about tornadoes that became an 11/10 experience when jostled in one’s seat to actual wind and rain. But a recent, unexpected candidate is finally pushing the bounds of 4DX again, making the most of the format’s potential to enhance the sensorial joys of cinema.

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