Seven cops surround home only to find family watching The Walking Dead

Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes and Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon in a scene from The Walking Dead. Photo / AMC

It sounded like a scene from a horror film.

Screaming and gunshots, heavy footsteps and mayhem. At 7:28 p.m. Sunday, the sounds prompted a neighbour to call 911. Another helped seven police officers in Great Falls, Montana, locate the house from whence the commotion came.

According to police notes obtained by the Great Falls Tribune, authorities expected to find a disturbance possibly involving a gun.

They reacted accordingly, surrounding the house with their weapons drawn. They heard "loud talking" and saw "flashing lights."

"We had a whole bunch of guys on that one," Great Falls Police Department Sgt. Brian McGraw told the Tribune.

A Walker from the TV show The Walking Dead. Photo / AMC

Inside the house, the action was no less gripping. In a town overrun by zombies, a few humans were fighting for their lives. Amid the chaos, a gunfight ensued, someone's eye was taken out, a gaggle of zombies got engulfed in a pool of flames.

That, of course, was on TV.

Off-screen, there was just a family watching the mid-season premiere of AMC's The Walking Dead, a series about a zombie apocalypse, with their windows open and the volume turned up.

The police officers left the scene of the fictional crime after confirming that all was well. The family - two adults and several children, according to the Tribune - has not commented on the incident.