Cinema Leaves Kids In Tears After Showing Horror Film Instead Of Detective Pikachu

Going to the cinema is one of the greatest pleasures in childhood, but some young cinemagoers in Canada got more than they bargained for when they sat down for a screening of PG-rated Detective Pikachu, only to realise they were watching 15+ horror film The Curse of La Llorona. Yikes.

Reporting the hilarious gaff on Twitter was Ryan George, who works at file site ScreenRant, who first realised something was wrong when a series of horror film trailers popped up ahead of the movie.

"The theatre I'm in is playing a trailer for Annabelle Comes Home before Detective Pikachu LOOK AWAY CHILDREN OH NO," he tweeted.

But things went from bad to worse as the horror trailers continued to roll. While some kids no doubt couldn't believe their luck at getting to feast their eyes on older-kid material, other children began to cry.

Continued his tweets, Ryan wrote: "Andddd kids are crying. Now the Joker trailer is playing.

"NOW IT'S CHUCKY OH NO CHILDREN OH NO."

Finally, once the reel of unsuitable trailers had finished, the film began to play, only until the audience realised-yes, you guessed it- it was the wrong film. Instead of the family-friendly Pokemon movie, they got La Llorona.

"OH MY GOD THEY'RE PLAYING LA LLORANA [sic] INSTEAD OF DETECTIVE PIKACHU," Ryan reported.

For some context, La Llorona is the latest in the supernatural horror series, The Conjuring. Based on the Mexican folklore tale of a woman who drowns her two sons in a river, the film follows the story of a detective who must endeavour to save her own children from the evil spirit.

So in short: really bloody scary.

Warner Bros

This is a far cry from what the kids expected. In case you didn't know, Detective Pikachu is the spin-off from the much-loved video game starring the loveable Pikachu as a super-sleuth. After detective Harry Goodman goes missing, his son Tim enlists the skills of Pikachu to help as the pair embark on a comic adventure to find him.

Finally realising their mistake, the cinema shut off the film as quickly as possible and escorted the paying audience to another screen where they sat down to watch the intended film.

While it was no doubt something that will stick in these kiddos minds, many saw the funny side in the mess-up.

One Twitter user wrote: "I find this absolutely hilarious. I saw my first horror movie when I was 6. The original HALLOWEEN. I would let my kid stay and watch."

Another joked: "This is now my favorite [sic] theater."

A third shared their own anecdote of a similar childhood experience: "Reminds me of that time the theater I was in played a trailer for Seed of Chucky before Spiderman 2. I was 11. It was traumatizing. [sic]"

Topics: Entertainment News, TV & Film

Ciara Sheppard

Ciara is a freelance journalist working for Tyla. After graduating from the University of Sussex, Ciara worked as a writer at GLAMOUR Magazine and later as the Assistant Editor of Yahoo Style UK.

@ciarasheppard