Look, as a horror fanatic, I love a well-executed, warranted jump scare just as much as the next person.
And one of the most anticipated horror films coming out this year, The Nun, promises to be chock-full of jump scares.
View this video on YouTube
BUT, the jump scare marketing around the film went a little too far this week, causing Twitter user bbydvas to tweet out a warning in reference to an ad they'd seen circulating around YouTube for the upcoming film.
WARNING! If you see an ad on youtube with the volume sign 🔊🔉🔇 being turned down and nothing else, ITS A JUMPSCARE for the new NUN movie coming out. i advise you look away and/or turn down the volume if you have anxiety or just straight up hate jumpscares, pls rt to save a life
The warning quickly went viral, racking up over 145k likes in 24 hours, making it very clear this user was not alone in their experience with the ad.
So, out of morbid curiosity, I tracked the ad down to watch it. WARNING: Do not turn your volume up unless you hate having the ability to hear clearly.
View this video on YouTube
The design of the ad makes it too short to skip, and also tricks people into thinking their volume is broken, which makes them CRANK it up, only to be greeted with a SCREAMING NIGHTMARE NUN.
This was literally my face watching the clip, fully expecting the scare, in a well-lit and crowded office:
While the clip by itself in this isolated setting isn't TOO bad, I will freely admit I would've been pretty freakin' scared if it played as an un-skippable ad before, say, a friendly make-up tutorial.
IF I SEE THE NUN TRAILER POP UP AS ANOTHER AD WHEN IM WATCHING YOUTUBE IMMA THROW HANDS. IM TIRED OF GETTING SCARED IN THE MIDDLE OF A JAMES CHARLES VIDEO
Especially if I had on headphones. Especially at night.
IM LITERALLY SHAKING AND TEARING UP RIGHT NOW I JUST WANTED TO PLAY EPIPHANY BUT WHY DID YOUTUBE GAVE ME A FUCKING THE NUN JUSMPSCARE AS AN AD AT 5 FUCKING AM
And while those with anxiety didn't appreciate a terrifying, un-skippable ad, they DID appreciate being warned.
@bbydvas thank you so much for tweeting this!! me and my close siblings all have problems with horror and jumpscares (especially me since im sensitive about this stuff+have anxiety) and i warned both of them now thanks to this post!!! u probably saved all of us from nightmares at least💓
The good news is that, given the quick backlash, YouTube has responded, stating that the ad will no longer run before videos since it violated their "shocking content policy."
@bbydvas Appreciate you bringing this to our attention! This ad violates our shocking content policy and it's no longer running as an ad. More info here: https://t.co/dOUocjUevh
The policy states that "ads that are likely to shock or scare” are prohibited on YouTube.
The Nun hits theaters Sept. 7th, 2018 but, until then, catch me reacting to every slightly suspicious YouTube ad like:
