Mum’s horror as ‘Disney’ film treat turned out to be The Exorcist

A mum was horrified when she cuddled up with her three-year-old son to watch a Disney film which turned out to be infamous chiller The Exorcist.

Beth Golding, 22, bought the pirate film Treasure Planet from Poundland for her son Eli to watch before bedtime on Christmas Eve.

But the young mum panicked when the 18-rated horror The Exorcist – named the ‘scariest film of all time’ in several polls – began playing.

Her partner Callum Ellis immediately reached for the stop button.

Three-year-old Eli was looking forward to watching his new colourful pirate film but was faced with the opening scenes of the 1973 horror.

Beth, of Adisham in Kent, said: “My partner noticed there wasn’t a menu and thought it seemed a bit weird that the film wasn’t animated,

“It looked dark and scary so he turned it off straight away and when we looked at the disc we saw it was The Exorcist.

“Luckily my son didn’t see anything, but he could have seen something he shouldn’t have.”

Beth bought the DVD which contained the wrong disc from Poundland in Canterbury, Kent.

The primary school supervisor was ‘horrified’ when she realised her son almost watched The Exorcist in which a girl is possessed by a demon and stabs herself with a crucifix.

She said: “I’d bought it on December 20 and wrapped it ready for Eli to open as a Christmas Eve gift.

“He was really looking forward to watching it but by the time he’d opened it and we saw it was the wrong DVD, the shop was shut so there was nothing we could do.”

Beth spoke to somebody at the discount store’s head office who said she could return the film and get her pound back.

But Beth said she ‘does not care about getting her pound back’ and wants to ‘take things further’ and seek compensation after her son’s Christmas Eve treat was ruined.

Poundland spokesperson Andrea Ross said: “We thank the customer for getting in touch and are awaiting the necessary documentation to pass on to the supplier to investigate.”