Children burst into tears at a cinema after horror film The Curse Of La Llorona was played instead of Detective Pikachu.

The film opens with a scene showing a mother drowning her child and follows the story of a social worker who is trying to protect her children from a dangerous spirit.

Families who had booked to see the family-friendly Pokemon film first realised something was amiss when horror trailers began playing at the showing at the Guzzo Marche Central cinema in Montreal.

Andddd kids are crying. Now the Joker trailer is playing. — Ryan George (@theryangeorge) May 9, 2019

The cinema-goers were shown trailers for Annabelle Comes Home - a Conjuring spin-off about a possessed doll - as well as Joker and the remake of Child's Play.

Children in the cinema reportedly began crying during the trailers.


Ryan George, who works for Screen Rant and also posts videos to YouTube, live-tweeted the incident.

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

Later on he added: "OH MY GOD THEY'RE PLAYING LA LLORANA (sic) INSTEAD OF DETECTIVE PIKACHU."

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After parents complained to cinema staff, the film was turned off and the cinema-goers were moved to another screen where Detective Pikachu was being shown.

They finally realized the mistake and shut it off. Poor kids 😅 pic.twitter.com/mGbgrBx0Oe — Ryan George (@theryangeorge) May 9, 2019

We've all been moved to another theatre where Detective Pikachu is just paused? At least there aren't any more murders on-screen pic.twitter.com/tEid3ThPY4 — Ryan George (@theryangeorge) May 9, 2019

Mr George said the Pokemon movie appeared to be paused when families were moved to the other screen.

Last year, an Australian cinema accidentally played the trailer for Hereditary - touted as one of the "scariest films of the year" - before a showing of Peter Rabbit.