The upcoming horror movie Hereditary is being touted as one of the scariest films of the year. So when a cinema outside Perth, Australia accidentally played the trailer before a screening of Peter Rabbit, you can guess what happened.
“It was dreadful,” one parent at the screening told local news website WA Today. “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.”
The screening was on Wednesday, which most Australians had off due to Anzac Day. But some families who had chosen to go to the movies got way more than they bargained for. One horrified witness explained how other parents “fled the cinema with their kids in tow”.
Understandably, the cinema wanted to make things right. The cinema, Event Cinemas in Innaloo, released a statement:
As soon as the staff onsite were made aware of the situation yesterday, the trailers were taken off-screen immediately and all patrons were given complimentary tickets as a gesture of goodwill.
The only problem? The cinema even messed up their apology. The free movie passes reportedly had an expiration date of 25 April 2018, the same day as the screening.
“We had been told they were valid for a month but they were out of date,” one parent told WA Today. But the cinema insists that the free tickets will be honoured until 25 April 2019, no matter what’s printed on the piece of paper.
For comparison’s sake, here’s the trailer for Hereditary…
…and here’s the trailer for Peter Rabbit:
So you can see why both parents and kids might have been a little disturbed on their day off.
Hereditary, which actually looks pretty good in this humble blogger’s opinion, hits cinemas June 7. You can read our review here. Peter Rabbit is in cinemas now.
[WA Today and Pedestrian.tv]