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Should I Let My Ten-Year-Old Daughter Watch Shaun Of The Dead?

My youngest daughter (aged ten) has just got the news she's getting into the same high school as her elder sister (aged thirteen) and we were looking for a celebratory occasion. She's told me she wants to watch Shaun Of The Dead.

She'd seen a bit of it a few weeks ago when it was on ITV2 (as it ever is) and I was feeling particularly lax. The bit in the garden when they are throwing records. Since then she has been asking me more about the film. She has been on Wikipedia. She has spoken to other kids at her school who have seen the film.

We have talked through the concept of screen violence. Scenes that may disturb her. Bad language. Imitable behaviour. She has pointed out that she watched Doctor Who – and has done for years. She hears lots of swearing at school, though she never uses it herself (at least not when we can hear her). She plays Fortnite. The film has a rating of 15 in the UK, rather than 18, which she has no intent to cross. Yet. She'd watch it with me, to be sure. She knows I am in the movie for about three seconds (bottom right of screen when we see the Winchester for the first time) and wants to see that too. She knows lots of the actors from Doctor Who and she understands that they are actors playing people. And if they die that's only pretend. She even talked about tomato ketchup – man, she will love that scene in Hot Fuzz. She also pointed out that I let her read any book she wants as long as she talks it over with me, before and afterwards. If she changes her mind and doesn't like it, we can turn it off.  Oh and she's going to be all of eleven in a week and she's been very good.

I mean, she makes a good case.

And it's one that's going to come up more and more as genres containing characters typically aimed at younger audiences start to cross the 15 and 18 barriers. Deadpool and Logan, I'm looking at you more than I am at Watchmen. But still.

So I did what any responsible parent does. I took to the internet to ask other people.

And there were lots of interesting responses.

Well yes, obviously, that would come next but there's an order to these things.

That's true, we did that with Doctor Who. And Nightmare Before Christmas. And Coraline. You may laugh, but that's one hell of a screwed up movie.

That is a pretty gross scene. Okay, maybe. Good point.

Should I buy that for a dollar? This link to Matt Zoller Seitz showing a bunch of similarly-aged kids the James Cameron movie Aliens was a great link to send me.

I was still umming and ahhing. And then I got this response.

Well then. Shaun of The Dead it is. Haven't told her Mum yet though. Looks like she has a whole other battle to fight first… will let you know how it goes.

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