We’re not sure why or how it keeps happening, but several theaters in recent years have accidentally shown horror trailers and/or the beginnings of horror movies to audiences full of children, with the trailers for BrightBurn and Ma most recently shown to unsuspecting families ahead of Peppa Pig in the UK. And it happened again over the weekend, this time in Canada.
ScreenRant’s Ryan George was in attendance at a theater in Canada the other day for a showing of Detective Pikachu, but he knew something was wrong when the trailers playing before the film weren’t exactly kid-friendly. The trailers for Annabelle Comes Home, Joker and Child’s Play escorted an unexpected showing of The Curse of La LLorona onto the screen!
“Andddd kids are crying,” George tweeted as part of a live-tweet thread we’ve embedded below. “OH MY GOD THEY’RE PLAYING LA LLORANA INSTEAD OF DETECTIVE PIKACHU.”
As those who have seen The Curse of La Llorona surely recall, the film’s opening sequence shows a mother drowning her two young children. Yikes…
“As soon as the Annabelle Comes Home trailer ended, you could hear a few kids crying,” George told Gizmodo. “When La Llorona started, it was pretty quiet in the theatre—everyone still thought it might still be Detective Pikachu. When the image of the mother drowning her kid showed up on screen, several people left the room to go warn the theatre staff.”
Only about five minutes of La Llorona played before the theater corrected the error.
George even captured some footage from his bizarre night out, which you’ll find below.
The theatre I’m in is playing a trailer for Annabelle Comes Home before Detective Pikachu LOOK AWAY CHILDREN OH NO
— Ryan George (@theryangeorge) May 9, 2019
Andddd kids are crying. Now the Joker trailer is playing.
— Ryan George (@theryangeorge) May 9, 2019
NOW IT’S CHUCKY OH NO CHILDREN OH NO pic.twitter.com/P2DkGmglDJ
— Ryan George (@theryangeorge) May 9, 2019
OH MY GOD THEY’RE PLAYING LA LLORANA INSTEAD OF DETECTIVE PIKACHU pic.twitter.com/j4qX6fAf95
— Ryan George (@theryangeorge) May 9, 2019
— Ryan George (@theryangeorge) May 9, 2019