The Hideous Horse Overshadowing Two Marvel Superstars

The image features a scene in which Florence Pugh (Black Widow) and Andrew Garfield’s (The Amazing Spider-Man) characters reveal their feelings for each other, with the emotional moment of the movie being intruded upon by a carousel horse that looks like it was painted into existence by Edvard Munch—along with all of the artist’s mental health issues. To be entirely honest, that We Live In Time horse looks hideous; its eyes are bulging and soulless, and its mouth is agape as if the poor creature has been stuck in a perpetual scream of agony.

Of course, the comedic potential of this odd image didn’t escape the internet residents, who immediately turned the We Live In Time horse into memes, and some of them are surprisingly good. There are more basic ones, like someone switching Pugh’s grinning face with that of the horse, while others have its head protruding through the door like in Jack Nicholson’s The Shining or Insidious. More notable ones actually switched the Donkey from Shrek with the We Live In Time horse, while the Alien: Romulus poster has the evil horse instead of a Xenomorph.

Now, some say that this must’ve been a huge oversight for A24’s marketing team, with everyone, from the production company, the film’s director, John Crowley, and the entire creative team behind the movie failing to even consider the possibility that the We Live In Time horse, horrifying as it is, won’t steal the show. But that’s really hard to imagine; the shot must’ve gone through at least a dozen pairs of eyes before it was approved for posting, leading us to believe that this is all just a clever marketing trick to gain even more traction online.

If that’s true, that’s one creative way of translating online traction into ticket sales, which isn’t really a novelty—everyone’s taking pages from The Unborn’s book, a Gary Oldman horror that generated plenty of attention by launching a scary online game to promote the movie. This move turned The Unborn into a commercial success despite the critical slaughter the movie justifiably suffered. Perhaps A24 is hoping to achieve the same with the We Live In Time horse, generate enough buzz and hype, and turn all of that into ticket sales.

The movie promoted by the We Live In Time horse meme tells the story of Almut and Tobias—portrayed by Pugh and Garfield respectively—an up-and-coming chef and recent divorcee who find their lives forever changed when a chance encounter brings them together in a decade-spanning deeply moving romantic narrative. The movie is scheduled to premiere in September 2024 during the annual Toronto International Film Festival, with a subsequent theatrical release.