Scent Dialekt

Director Paul Wendkos. Another made-for-TV movie from that summer with my grandma in Kansas, this one an ABC Movie of the Week. No specimen was produced for this film. It did not feel right to me. I ended up developing a phobia of patent leather tap shoes for several years after watching the character Rachel chase Mark onto a pier. I am very certain I watched her step on his hands while he held on...

Director: Jeffrey Bloom. Another movie from that summer of horror with my grandma, watched on TV on some channel like TBS. Later in junior high I read the V.C. Andrews book, which was darker and so sad. I love Louise Fletcher as an actress, but I developed a real fright around her character, Olivia Foxworth. Being around someone so cold and so devoid of warmth was upsetting to me as a child, becau...

Director: Buzz Kulik. This is from a summer I spent with my grandmother in Kansas, where we watched a bunch of horror movies, and this one was next level to see at such a young age. Knowing a teenager could be capable of these acts, of having that tendency in him, really freaked me out. When Ronald's mom gives him supplies to survive inside the wall, I became obsessed with powdered milk. The secon...

Director: Dario Argento. This is the scene that started Scent Dialekt. Suzy and Sara swimming in the pool and you are seeing it from the POV of one of the witches, watching from above. I could smell all of it. The pool stone, the pool water, the shampoo in their hair. I thought one day I have to make a perfume of this scene. I did it back in 2016 and this is what started it all. The apple shampoo...

Director: William Peter Blatty. This opening has had a chokehold on me for the longest time. People view Blatty's Exorcist III as half horror, half slapstick but this opening is something else. That church scene has this THX sound design and when the damn doors fly open it is so loud. I saw this movie so young and when I rewatched it older I think it is neck and neck with Friedkin's Exorcist. The...

Director: Alan Parker. First movie in the series and one I watched alone too young. This is where the synesthesia started. That armoire opens inside the Kingdom Mission and I could smell it. The glass eyeball. The taxidermied animal. The candle wax. The fear. Scent Dialekt is an independent art and film-criticism project. Fragrances are original transformative works inspired by cinema; no affiliat...

A brief introduction to Scent Dialekt. Full episodes coming soon.