The new trailer for the musical Cats is creeping people out, with some saying it will be the ‘scariest movie of the year’.
Yes, you read that correctly. The musical Cats is terrifying people.
It’s not an emotion often associated with musicals, they’re usually either upbeat and happy or solemn and emotional, and while Cats does have those elements the slow introduction of the song Memories is enough to send a cold chill down anyone’s spine.
Check out the trailer here:
The animal-themed production is a staple of theatre but understandably producers can’t rely on actual cats to hit all those high notes, so instead they turn to humans dressed as felines.
Now, this is fine when they’re dancing about on stage in front of you, clearly wearing costumes, but it becomes a little more frightening when the characters are decked out in realistic digital fur – and even scarier still when you realise many of the cat-human hybrids are actually your favourite celebrities.
The upcoming film is stuffed to the brim with a number of big-name actors and musicians, including Rebel Wilson, Idris Elba, Judy Dench, Ian McKellen, James Corden, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson and Jason Derulo, to name a few.
Director Tom Hooper, who was behind Les Misérables and The King’s Speech, opted to use motion-capture technology in order to make it look as if the stars really are fur-covered.
However, while they’ve certainly done well to get that many A-listers on board the creators should have probably just animated some actual singing cats for the production, because the ‘furry human’ approach is unnerving a lot of people.
Many took to social media to share their distress after watching the trailer.
One person tweeted:
Pity the poor horror directors who have spent their whole careers trying to make scary movies, and then along comes the CATS trailer and it’s 100 times more terrifying without even trying.
While another wrote:
might sue this CATS Trailer for emotional distress
Based on the book Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot, the musical follows the Jellicle cats, a family of felines who go before the group’s leader to see who will be selected to travel to the Heaviside layer for a new life.
Looks like Pennywise has some competition.
Cats is set to be released on December 20, 2019.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.