A theater accidentally played a super inappropriate horror movie trailer before “Peter Rabbit”
The subgroup of people interested in watching both an animated children’s movie about a playful rabbit and a “traumatically terrifying horror movie” is, as it turns out, pretty small. Unfortunately, this fact became abundantly clear this week when an Australian movie theater mistakenly played a trailer for Hereditary ahead of a Peter Rabbit showing.
For those who haven’t seen the trailer, Hereditary is not ~exactly~ a family-friendly flick. The movie follows a family battling ghosts after a heartbreaking death, and the AV Club describes as “pure emotional terrorism.” The trailer, played to an audience of largely kids and their parents, includes a man on fire, scissors wedging into a dead pigeon’s neck, a corpse in a casket, to name just a few scenes.
“It was dreadful,” one audience member told the Sydney Morning Herald. “Very quickly you could tell this was not a kid’s film. Parents were yelling at the projectionist to stop, covering their kids’ eyes and ears. Some parents fled the cinema with their kids in tow.”
A spokesman for Event Hospitality & Entertainment Limited said that they are investigating the issue “to ensure situations like this do not occur again.” Audience members were also reportedly given complimentary movie tickets as an apology for the mix-up.
Horrified audience members may not have loved the trailer, but A24 — the entertainment company behind Hereditary — had an appropriately tongue-in-cheek response to the news.
“We will consider subsidizing their child therapy,” the account tweeted.
We will consider subsidizing their child therapy. #hereditary https://t.co/ds7FPS3Wig
— A24 (@A24) April 26, 2018
Hereditary opens in theaters June 8th. A word to the wise: Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-Tail do not make an appearance. Watch the trailer (if you dare!) below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6wWKNij_1M?feature=oembed
Excuse us while we scream for an hour.