Young children were reportedly frightened and tearful at a screening of Peppa Pig: Festival of Fun at Empire Cinema in Ipswich on Saturday after two age-inappropriate trailers were aired before the feature.

The trailers shown were for the film Brightburn, which is billed as a “startling, subversive take on a radical new genre: superhero horror” and Ma, a psychological horror in which Octavia Spencer nurses sinister intentions towards a gang of teenagers she allows to party in her remote basement.

The trailer for Ma includes shots of torture, dead bodies, fire, jump cuts to scary masks and dialogue such as: “That bitch is crazy!” Brightburn, meanwhile, teases the tale of a man who terrifies his community with occult signs, shed-rattling, fork-chewing and blowtorches. Masks and corpses also feature.

One mother, who was at the screening with her two-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son, said: “There were lots of kids crying and [my daughter] was very confused and started crying, too.”

A spokesperson for Empire Cinema said: “We are investigating how an inappropriate trailer was played before a screening of Peppa Pig at our Ipswich cinema, for which we apologise.

“As soon as the staff on site were made aware of the situation, the programme was stopped and trailers were taken off screen immediately. We do sincerely apologise for this and for any distress caused, and will be reviewing our internal procedures to ascertain how this came to being.”

Last year, a similar incident occurred in Australia during a screening of Peter Rabbit. Parents yelled at the projectionist to stop after a trailer for Hereditary preceded the screening. In 2012, children who had turned up at a cinema in London for Puss in Boots were were treated beforehand to trailers for films including The Devil Inside and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.