Reports from the first screening of The Batman claim it is a "three-hour horror movie"

The early online reactions had audiences "gasping" and "screaming" during some of the scenes.

Like everything on the Internet, we need to take this with a few grains of salt, but Twitter was all abuzz this week with some folk reporting that Warner Brothers had held an early test screening of The Batman, and to say it went well is to put it lightly...

Directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), the plot is still mostly unknown, but will likely involve an early in his career Batman/Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson), in a villain-filled Gotham, including Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin (Colin Farrell), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and Edward Nashton/The Riddler (Paul Dano).

Batman will have some help in the usual form of James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) and Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis), as well as relative unknowns like Officer Stanley Merkel (Barry Keoghan) and District Attorney Gil Colson (Peter Sarsgaard).

The movie should've actually been out by now, with the original release date of June 2021, but the pandemic caused Warner Bros. to push the release back by several months.

However, if online reports are to be believed, then the movie had its first test screening this week, and the reaction has got us VERY excited...

DC World Telugu took to Twitter to say that "Ok so apparently The Batman (3hr long rough cut) had a test screening yesterday and the reactions have been positive It is being described as a very serious, graphic and scary film with full of shocking moments aided by the phenomenal performance of Pattinson."

Daniel Richtman said that "The Batman test screening had audiences screaming and squirming I hear. One scene had people gasping."

The DC Syndicate reported that "The Batman has had a 3 hour long test screening: People who claim to have seen have given incredible reviews, claiming that it's the best DC movie. Calls it a very dark, scary 'horror' movie. Zoe Kravitz and Paul Dano getting praise. Shocking twist at the end of the film."

The Stack shared that "Matt Reeves' The Batman had a test screening and the reviews say it’s one of the best Superhero films since the Nolan Trilogy. The movie is a straight horror movie. Paul Dano is terrifying! Pattinson kills it as Batman/Bruce Wayne! The cut that was show was 3 hours."

Thankfully, we don't have TOO much longer to wait, as The Batman is due for release in Irish cinemas on 4 March, 2022.

Check out the first (and to date only) trailer below, which was actually launched over a year ago at this point:

Clip via Warner Bros.