Downton Abbey fans react in a hilarious way to the unexpected horror twist

Downton Abbey‘s pre-show warnings failed to prepare fans for the on-screen blood and gore during Sunday night’s sixth-season episode.

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In case you missed it (and if you did it might be time you looked away) the family gathered as usual for dinner but this time their beautifully white tablecloths were destroyed by Lord Grantham’s exorcism.

OK, not quite, but the scene would have been quite at home in something from a horror film, as Grantham suddenly started violently coughing up blood (which sprayed right in Cora Crawley’s face).

Fans of the prim and proper show are not used to seeing such graphic scenes and took to Twitter to express their shock — and the reactions have produced some real Internet gold.

What the heck just happened?

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Oh sorry, did we not get the memo that this was a remake of The Exorcism of Emily Rose?

How about a scene from The Walking Dead?

Nope, but there was certainly enough blood and guts to give the show a good run for its money.

According to The Guardian, the episode warned fans beforehand, saying, “we would like to warn viewers that this episode contains shocking and bloody scenes.” But this was still the reaction:

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Forget the health of Lord Grantham, what about that poor table cloth?!

Please Downton Abbey creators, don’t do this to us again!

What can we possibly expect from the next episode? Will there be more gore? How about a replica of the Red Wedding scene from Game of Thrones? Or maybe the show will take on a sci-fi twist?

Now that that’s over…

Were you as shocked by this scene as everyone else? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.