This Sunday evening, the AMC channel will premiere the second season of its hit television series The Walking Dead. I will be sending my sons to their rooms a little earlier than normal on that night because I don’t allow them to watch the zombie-infested spectacle that I and millions of other viewers love so much. This might not seem like such a big deal to most; although it is shown on a cable network and not HBO or Showtime, it does have gag-inducing moments of gore that are comparable to major box-office productions and a “restricted” rating. The fact that I don’t allow my sons, aged eleven and thirteen respectively, to watch The Walking Dead or any other zombie-related films, may come as a surprise to some, considering that here in my hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, I am known to some as the “Zombie Queen of Shreveport.”
In 2008, I started a very different kind of annual food drive event called the Shreveport Zombie Walk. Motivated by the success of over fifty cities around the world, I decided it was time for Louisiana to have a zombie walk, on World Zombie Day, no less. The first and subsequent two walks were held at a local mall, which graciously donated the space and support for such a weird and wonderful event. Each year the number of attendees has increased; year one’s zombie count totaled exactly one hundred.
The 2011 zombie walk, which was on Saturday, October 8, saw zombies in my community come out in record droves; we estimate over five-hundred attended. Over four hundred actually signed in, but my volunteers assured me that not everyone that actually participated did the same. The number of participants was staggering to me. The zombies seemed to just keep pouring into the closed-off street of downtown Shreveport that we used to stage the event.
More impressive was the amount of non-perishable food that the zombies brought with them. I advertised the walk all over town and in any part of the state that I could. The main goal was to let people know that the event was free and that the only thing attendees were asked to bring was non-perishable food to donate to the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana. Some brought numerous bags of canned goods; a few pulled wagons behind them, toting their tiny zombified-offspring as well as their generous donations. A local band called The Moulin Dudes entertained the infected masses, door prizes and best costume prizes were awarded, and a few vendors sold their wares. It all accumulated into one, massive two-block procession of the undead around the sidewalks of downtown Shreveport, in an effort to raise awareness of hunger issues in our community and the world.
My family and friends gladly attended and helped out in whatever ways they could. My children enjoyed the festivities; Sammy dressed as a mixed-up zombified version of the tenth and eleventh Doctors from the Doctor Who series, complete with brown dress coat and red fez.
My teenager, Michael, decided to be a survivor/zombie hunter. He sure made his geek mom proud when he made his public debut on guitar playing “Re: Your Brains” by Jonathan Coulton, accompanied by The Moulin Dudes, to lead the crowd in a “zombie sing-a-long.”
The local Barnes and Noble set up a table at the walk, selling only books that featured the living dead. Not only did they sell copies of The First Days by Rhiannon Frater, an award-winning horror author and friend of mine who attended the walk as a special guest, but they also sold copies of the book that I co-edited with author Joe McKinney and have a short story in myself, Dead Set: A Zombie Anthology.
So am I “talking out of both sides of my mouth” when I say that I don’t allow my children to watch zombie films or television, or play zombie-killing video games? I would say no. As mothers, and parents in general, we have to know where to draw the line when it comes to our kids. What may be okay for another child to watch or play may not be okay for our own children. I don’t keep them away from the zombie genre completely; how could I with so much living dead activity going on in our home? I’ve heard the complaints from Michael and Sammy of how it’s not fair that they don’t get to play “rated M” video games or watch movies that are “rated R.” My husband, in an attempt to help me better explain it to the boys, has said to me, “Come on, Mom! You are the zombie queen of Shreveport and you don’t even let your own kids play Resident Evil!”
I explained it to Sammy and Michael like this, “I’m not worried you will have nightmares. I’m not afraid you will want to grab a gun and shoot someone because you think they are a zombie. I know you better than that. I know that you know that certain things are real life, and certain things are fantasy.”
What I don’t tell them is what I am thinking: I want them to keep a certain amount of childhood wonder and innocence. I don’t want them to watch movies or play video games that have adult content in them that their minds cannot understand. When they are older, and their brains have matured a little more, with raging hormones not being the number one priority in their life, we can discuss hot topics more thoroughly, and I don’t mean the hipster store in the mall where we already spend too much money. Once I feel that they are mature enough, I will have no problem with them watching horror films and playing mature games, if they choose to do so. My parents never restricted what I was exposed to and that was fine for me, but I believe my children would suffer negative effects if I didn’t. They usually do get to watch PG-13 films, including fantasy and sci-fi, which come packed with action and violence a lot of the time. It’s not really the violence that compels me to restrict certain forms of media; it’s the adult situations, grown up decisions, and the harsh consequences of them all. I truly believe that most children cannot wrap their minds around some of the situations that they see on television or in films today, even when they say that they do.
If a film seems to be one that my child may not completely comprehend, I will research the storyline and plot-points before making the decision to let them watch it, no matter what the rating may be. I learned that lesson a few years ago when I took them, at ages six and nine, to see the 2005 version of War of the Worlds in theaters. It was very hard to see the look of confusion on Sammy’s face as the little girl in the movie was almost stolen away from her father by desperate people who wanted to drive away in the mini-van where she was trapped, crying for her father to save her. Even worse, I had to explain to Sammy what happened to a crazy man, when the same little girl’s daddy told her to close her eyes and cover her ears while he shot the man, to protect himself and his daughter girl from being discovered by the invading aliens.
I expose them to more and more in small doses. For example, I will allow Michael, who will be fourteen in a few short weeks, to read zombie-themed books, as long as I have read them first and know there is no graphic sexuality or uncalled-for violence in them. Books by my friend and author Joe McKinney and author J.L. Bourne have seemed to fit that bill well, and have made Michael feel as if he is crossing over into new territory and growing up a little. I even allow both of them to watch the original 1968 George Romero classic Night of the Living Dead. This was another unavoidable consequence of me playing the lead, Barbara, in a live on-stage production of the film, for two years in a row in a local small theater.
- I thoroughly enjoy all of the perks of being a grown up: getting to watch whatever I want on TV, like The Walking Dead season 2 premiere this Sunday, even though I can say with the confidence of someone who owns and has read them all many times over, that the comics are much better than the show; getting to play zombie-themed video games if I choose to do so, although I would rather watch my younger sister play an avatar that tromps around Raccoon City, decimating the undead; and making sure to not over-expose my children to the pop-culture phenomenon that is the zombie.
- Even though I have a passion for it myself that borders on obsessive, as they grow into bigger, better geeks and gamers, I want them to have something to look forward to. I want them to know that when they turn seventeen years old, there will still be something out there that is new to them. I will have so much fun watching them watch the films I love, like Dawn of the Dead and Army of Darkness, and in turn, getting to discuss important philosophical questions with them such as, “Which is better, slow zombies or fast zombies?”
