The mother of an Aurora massacre victim said trailers for the upcoming drama “Joker” left her “absolutely horrified.”
Sandy Phillips, whose daughter Jessica Ghawi, 24, was among the dozen people slaughtered inside the Colorado movie theater during a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in 2012, is among those calling out Warner Bros. over the controversial new film.
“When I first saw the trailers of the movie, I was absolutely horrified,” Phillips told BBC News. “And then when I dug a little deeper and found out that it had such unnecessary violence in the movie, it just chilled me to my bones.
“It just makes me angry that a major motion picture company isn’t taking responsibility and doesn’t have the concern of the public at all.”
Family members of those killed in the Aurora shooting penned a letter to the studio urging it to “use your massive platform and influence to join us in our fight to build safer communities with fewer guns.”
Warner Bros. responded, saying it has a “long history of donating to victims of violence,” including the Aurora victims.
“Make no mistake: neither the fictional character Joker, nor the film, is an endorsement of real-world violence of any kind,” it added. “It is not the intention of the film, the filmmakers or the studio to hold this character up as a hero.”
The thriller, starring Joaquin Phoenix, has stoked fears of mass shootings at movie theaters related to its themes of violence and mental illness.
The theater in Aurora has already said it won’t be screening the movie, which comes out Oct. 4.