Only one pokémon can solve the mystery of how this happened.
If ever you find yourself in a movie theater to see a family-friendly film and are greeted by trailers for R-rated horror movies, turn back — something may have gone terribly wrong. Moviegoers in Montreal hoping to see “Detective Pikachu” learned that the hard way on Thursday night when a mistake led to “The Curse of La Llorona” being played instead, which naturally caused terror — and tears — among the children present.
Ryan George of Screen Rant was in attendance for the ill-fated screening, noticing that something had gone wrong long before the kiddos did: “The theatre I’m in is playing a trailer for Annabelle Comes Home before Detective Pikachu LOOK AWAY CHILDREN OH NO,” he tweeted. “Andddd kids are crying. Now the Joker trailer is playing.”
The ordeal didn’t end there, of course, as a preview for “Child’s Play” was next: “NOW IT’S CHUCKY OH NO CHILDREN OH NO.” The crowd seemed to go along with it up until that point, as George filmed quick videos showing laughter among the adults in the audience, but once the wrong feature started playing the jig was up.
Eventually they were moved into another theater (“at least there aren’t any more murders on-screen”), but not before traumatizing at least a few of the younger attendees who just wanted to see Ryan Reynolds solve some mysteries in a world populated by adorable fighting monsters.
With “Detective Pikachu” expected to make as much as $60 million this weekend, one hopes that no other multiplexes make the same mistake — but, if they do, one also hopes that someone is there to record the fallout.
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
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sleepyprojectionist on October 2nd, 2020 at 15:51 UTC »
I used to be a 35mm projectionist. We used to move prints to the correct screens the night before and lace them up. Automation would take care of starting the show, but we were always supposed to be there for a show start to make sure everything was correct.
We used to have morning Kids Club screenings of older animated movies and such. Well, one morning I was a bit late getting to the start of the screening. The projector was running fine, but when I peered out of the porthole I could see a “this trailer is rated 15” warning on screen. I have never hit a stop button so fast. My colleague the night before had laced up a new horror movie and I hadn’t noticed when I powered on the system.
Thankfully no one complained and I got the correct film on a few minutes later.
This happened infrequently, but probably more often than you would like to think. Now that everything is digital and there are very few projectionists left in the world I wouldn’t be surprised if this sort of thing happens more often.
pjabrony on October 2nd, 2020 at 15:15 UTC »
Pikachu is always hurting kids, and poor Porygon takes the blame.
kinyutaka on October 2nd, 2020 at 14:37 UTC »
"accidentally"