'The Batman' Screening Becomes Chaos As Guest Releases Live Bat Into Audience

It’s safe to say that basically everyone loves The Batman. It released to both super positive audience scores and critic reviews - UNILAD wrapped theirs up saying “from grin to wince, The Batman is the big-screen light only the dark knight can provide. Reeves and Pattinson deliver the caped crusader’s most brutal movie yet; like a Bat out of hell.”

So, it’s no wonder that everyone’s been rushing out to see it, including the animal kingdom, apparently. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, one screening of the film last Friday (5 March) quickly went haywire when someone unleashed a literal, live bat into the theatre. The incident occurred in Texas, because of course it did.

Before we go on, check out the official trailer for The Batman below.

The chaos was captured in all its glory by a number of users on Twitter, who managed to record the situation as it unfolded: “[We’ll] use the projector to turn that light off, and I’m gonna turn all these lights off and try and get it to go into this lighted area. If you are uncomfortable being in the dark with the bat, please remove yourself now,” one employee told the clearly very amused audience. 

I was there. They tried to bait it into flying out pic.twitter.com/tkPLMJdtbm

— Vincent Genovese (@sparty1211) March 5, 2022

“Local animal control was immediately contacted, and they have been overseeing the situation to ensure guest, associate and animal safety,” Annelise Holyoak, a spokesperson at Cinépolis told CBS Austin. “To ensure a prank like this does not again occur, we’ve added additional security and are checking all bags upon guest entry.”

According to CBS Austin, the majority of cinema-goers actually opted to stay and finish the movie while the bat was still in the room, despite being offered full refunds. Guess it’s a level of immersion you’re not going to get anywhere else.

I’m at the Batman movie and there are real bats in the theater…. #Imcooloffthat pic.twitter.com/NdSkMITXQi

— J (@Jeremiah24_) March 5, 2022

In other Batman related news, fans were incredibly surprised yesterday to learn that none other than Keanu Reeves will be playing the Dark Knight in his next outing. The slight caveat to that is that this is in DC League Of Super-Pets, an animated film about the DC universe’s animal sidekicks. Needless to say, it’s not going to be quite so dark and gritty as The Batman, but its casting is breathtaking regardless.