The “C” stands for “Children”.
It's been a little over a week since I posted in this blog. I took some time off, but I've got something on my mind:
I am
disgusted! My friend Kenny and I went to
the movies today to see World War Z, the latest thing in box-office blockbusters about a zombie apocalypse, this one starring Hollywood golden-boy Brad Pitt.
The
film had all kinds of zombies and death.
The only good thing I can say about this from a moral standpoint is
that, once bitten, the zombies leave the victims alone. Unlike most other zombie films, the
filmmakers thankfully didn’t relish excessive gore, and the cameras didn’t tend
to linger over needless scenes of bloody zombies eating entrails or tearing
bodies apart with their hands and teeth.
With that said, it still shows plenty of death. Victims writhe and wriggle, twist and thrash
about as the virus takes hold of them, effectively killing them and turning
them into demented, raving zombies in about 10 seconds. Then they join their zombie brethren in trying
to spread this virus to anyone and everyone they can sink their teeth into, and
they are extremely determined to do just that.
These aren’t the slow, shuffling zombies of George Romero’s original
zombie trilogy. These are the limber and
speedy raving lunatics of 28 Days Later,
The Return of the Living Dead, and
the remake of Dawn of the Dead. In fact, they’re quicker than even that, and
multiplied by the thousands!
So while
the film has its fair share of close zombie encounters with milky-eyed freaks,
some with parts of their face missing revealing their clicking, biting teeth,
it also has plenty of scenes of CGI zombie hoards overturning buses and climbing
walls like single-minded killer ants!
But the most disturbing thing about
this movie wasn’t taking place on the screen, but rather out in the
audience. I saw this film on Labor Day
afternoon at a discount theater filled with entire families. I was very disturbed as I left the theater with my
friend, taking note of all the little boys and girls accompanying their
families out of the theater at the same time.
There weren’t just one or two teenagers either. There were teenagers and preteens, of course, but there were also many children under the age of
10, some no higher than my knee! While the parents on the screen tried to protect
and shield their kids from the zombie carnage taking place all around them, the
parents in the theater had no such qualms, perhaps thinking it’s all okay
because it’s all just fantasy. Kids
who can’t read even Dr. Seuss books yet are watching unquantifiable amounts of blood and carnage projected on the big screen, and my guess is that
this was just another normal day for them.
I’d be willing to bet that if we went to an afternoon showing of The Conjuring, the latest demonic haunting
“It” movie, there would be children in the audience. Disgusting!
To me, this is a form of child abuse! Is
it that the parents or guardians aren’t thinking, or don’t care, or do they think there’s no harm
in toddlers watching an extremely violent zombie apocalypse? And don’t tell me that these parents are the
nurturing type, who will discuss the themes and meanings of this brutal movie
with their children afterwards. Any
parent who would take a toddler to see a film like this is not the type to
discuss it with them afterwards, even if it would do any good.
If you are a parent, and you are
reading this, and you take your children to a movie like this, or let them
watch stuff like this on TV, let me just say, “You aren’t doing them any
favors!” Where have we come as a country, as a society, when we casually take a four or five year old to a bloody, frenetic, violent zombie apocalypse film?
I’ll tell you where we are. We are on a precipice, staring into the
abyss! What kind of adults will these
children turn out to be? I am frightened
by the prospect of what the future holds for a nation that doesn’t care, that
doesn’t choose wisely.
Even I'm not above it. I’m a Christian, and before I became
a Christian, I had developed a liking for the horror movie genre. From the old Universal horror movie classics
to 70’s and 80’s favorites like Jaws,
Carrie, Aliens, and The Fly, to the
more modern film terrors of Pan’s
Labyrinth, Let Me In, and 1408, I’ve found I still enjoy, as one
character from An American Werewolf in
London once said, “A right old scare!”
And as a Christian, I sometimes wonder if I should.
But there’s no question that
children should not be subjected to this! Letting a sixteen year old see a film like this is one thing. Letting a six year old see a film like this is something else entirely! Why are so many parents taking their kids to films like this, or letting them watch anything on TV, including even toddlers? Don’t they worry about what affect this will
have on their kids?
But in a country that fights for the
rights of mothers to kill their babies still in the womb, or strike any mention
of God from our public schools and buildings unless it is to say that He is a
myth, is it any wonder our moral compass is damaged?
I weep for the future, I really do!
If you are a parent allowing your young children to see this kind of death and violence on screen, might I just say one
word? “STOP!” If we keep subjecting our children to this kind of violence, it's like zombie hoards attacking a helicopter: Pretty soon, we're gonna crash!
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