hereditary

A Perth Cinema Traumatises Kids By Accidentally Showing A Horror Trailer Before ‘Peter Rabbit’

Tell us you love Punkee without telling us you love Punkee. Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. It'll mean the world.

A cinema in Perth has apologised after it accidentally played the trailer for upcoming psychological horror film Hereditary ahead of a screening of the very non-horrific children’s film, Peter Rabbit. 

And at the risk of sounding like a terrible person, I think this might be the funniest thing that has ever happened.

The incident took place at Event Cinemas in Innaloo on Anzac Day, according to one audience member who spoke to WA Today.

“It was dreadful. 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.”

“A few went out to get a staff member but she was overwhelmed and didn’t really know what to do. Some parents fled the cinema with their kids in tow.”

The theatre was apparently full of families including “at least 40 children”.

Hereditary is rated MA15+ and has been described by one critic as this generation’s The Exorcist. So yeah, probably not all that suitable for preschoolers.

An Event spokesperson said the incident was being “investigated internally to ensure situations like this do not occur again”.

“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.”

In any case, the movie’s US distributor wasn’t all that worried about the mix-up.

Hereditary director Ari Aster seemed fine with it as well.

Hereditary hits cinemas in Australia on June 7. Don’t take your kids.

h/t WA Today

This article was originally published on Junkee.