Detective Pikachu screening leaves children left 'crying' as horror film The Curse of La Llorona shown by mistake
Cinemagoers who had taken their children to watch Detective Pikachu were left in shock after new horror film The Curse of Lo Llorona was shown instead.
Alarm bells started ringing when the Guzzo Marché Central in Montreal played the trailer for Annabelle Comes Home – a Conjuring spinoff about a possessed vintage doll – beforehand.
Reportedly, children in the cinema were crying because of the trailer’s jump scares. Following the Annabel sequel, promos for Joker and the remake of Child’s Play were shown.
Ryan George of Screen Rant was among those in the audience who live-tweeted the whole thing. “LOOK AWAY CHILDREN OH NO,” he wrote before revealing the cinema’s error.
The Curse of Lo Llorona, which follows a ghost who torments a social worker played by Linda Cardellini, opens with a scene depicting a mother drowning her child.
After complaints from parents, the cinema turned the film off and moved them to another screen where Detective Pikachu was being shown. It turns out those hoping to see The Curse of La Llorona had sat through trailers including The Secret Life of Pets 2.
The theatre I’m in is playing a trailer for Annabelle Comes Home before Detective Pikachu LOOK AWAY CHILDREN OH NO
— Ryan George (@theryangeorge)
This isn’t the first time a cinema has shown horror films instead of a family film. In 2018, Australian filmgoers were left terrified after Hereditary was shown instead of Peter Rabbit.