For reasons that no one can quite understand, Cats debuted its trailer this week.
The star-studded ensemble cast includes the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, and Dame Judi Dench.
(And Idris Elba, and Sir Ian McKellen, and Rebel Wilson, and Jason Derulo … it’s quite a list)
The trailer for the film is nothing short of unnerving.
A lot of people like the idea of human-cat hybrids – they appear across all sorts of fiction.
But apparently a bunch of humanoid motion-capture cats who are the sizes of real cats is a little much.
Twitter lost its mind, and the online responses are perhaps as entertaining as the trailer itself was unsettling.
Do you want to have nightmares?
Because watching a bunch of familiar people play anthropomorphic cats who are also the size of real cats is a great way to have nightmares.
Oh no!!
A lot of people were weirded out by seeing a furry Jigglypuff in Detective Pikachu (jiggly is a BALLOON Pokemon and, as such, should have been smooth). But that’s nothing compared to what’s happened to Dame Judi Dench here.
Same energy
One of the best episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and also one of the most memorable involves the gang putting on a deeply unsettling musical. But even the creepiness of the Nightman gets overshadowed by the horror of Cats.
The trailer needs some warnings
Do not mix with marijuana, folks. We’re guessing that this could go for a number of other substances, too.
Wait …. what if they play it in theaters?
Most of us watched the Cats trailer with some warning of what we were getting into, thanks to social media. Imagine being an innocent theater goer and then this deeply cursed trailer plays.
We really are in a golden age of horror films
All clowns are vile, so it doesn’t take much to turn one into a horror villain. It takes true art to turn beloved cats into something this unnerving.
People weren’t sure HOW to react
That said, this example is unfair. The story of Tygrus is a beautiful tragedy, even if it was very awkward for Batman and even more so for a temporarily mutated Selina Kyle.
Some apologies are owed
The Cat in the Hat and Sonic have both gotten a lot of well-deserved flak, but Cats has outdone them both
This one is Too Real
This tweet is so right and it will haunt me to my core.
Yes, there are already reaction vids
No one can quite believe what they’re seeing.
Who is emotionally prepared for this?
Cats is, after all, a famously not-very-good musical. Infamously so. Are … are they making it ironically?
It made people yell at their screens
We’ve all had our moments of denial like this person did.
Is it SUPPOSED to be like this?
If it’s supposed to be like the original musical, then yes, it’s designed to make people uncomfortable and designed to be a laughingstock.
This tweet may be the best of the bunch
The idea of no longer loving your real cat (as a joke, obviously!) because of one awful trailer is very funny.
Yeah
Sometimes, it just takes one final straw before the camel collapses. This was it.
It can’t be THAT bad
Yes, yes it can.
Some questions should never be answered
Emma Roberts’ screams on Scream Queens have lots of fun meme applications
How are people supposed to sleep now?
What if you fall asleep and you dream about Cats? A stern no-thank-you to that.
Is it not too late?
At this point, we’re thinking that Cats knew what the public reaction would be. It’s a film targeted at the same target audience as the original musical: cat ladies who like insane things.