Kind of Early

This is a list of the things in my life that I love and attribute to being my fathers fault. Think of it as an early Father's Day gift. This list is in no particular order.

Ninja Gaiden & Super Mario Brothers
Although I've touched on this subject before, I think the day my father came home with a NES tucked under his arms like it was a small child is still a fairly important part of my life. With the system there were two games, Mario being the one that is more or less deep in everyone's minds, especially since he's still a part of every day life. The other game being Ninja Gaiden, a ridiculously difficult game with an amazing cinematic streak. Every time I hear the first boss theme I always think of the house we lived at in Arapaho and those giant ugly brown-yellow and black fur pillows (On an unrelated note, I remember having a nightmare about vampires on those pillows.) ((Also of note would be Super Mario Brothers 3 and Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castles))

Falling Down
A movie starring Michael Douglas, and frankly my favorite movie with him in it period. The movie acts under the guise of dark comedy, which isn't much of a guise to act under, but when it's not making you smile at a man who has literally gone over the edge, it's actually relaying a very deep message. I remember every time it was on TV we'd flip to it and watch it together. I'm not sure which part captivated my father about it, if it was the comedic aspect of it or the messages about the loss of a child, I'll never be sure.

Computers
This one is kind of cheating. After watching my father and his brother tend to his broken computer, I developed an interested into what the hell was going on. My introduction to the grimy end of systems that I can't get away from these days (blue screens of death, anyone?) would be the fault of this encounter. I think more than anything though I just wanted to be a part of the group. I'm here now, guys. Got anything broken?

Fear of Spiders
Let's not talk about this one.

Rocky
The story of the underdog! We probably watched all of them at least a million times. I'm not sure what significance this has had on my life, other than the fact that I really fucking love Rocky. So, thank you for embedding it in my mind forever.

Scooby Doo (Where Are You?)
My biggest fear is that someone I love will catch me watching an episode of Scooby Doo. I literally cannot stop laughing from start to finish when one is on, and I don't have a good reason as to why. Luckily, I was never alone in this childish endeavor, as watching an episode of Scooby Doo with my father merited the same response. I often wonder what my step mother and step sisters thought of the sight of a grown man and thirteen year old boy laughing like maniacs at the antics of an animated dog and his mystery solving gang. The world may never know, but I still keep to myself when it comes to watching it now. Please, don't judge me. ):

Comedy in general
The ability to laugh and crack jokes (and appreciation of) is another one of those things that I'm just going to give to my dad. Remembering the mostly horrible jokes he'd tell me helped me carve out part of an identity during middle school, you know, that special time when nothing is for certain. My friends would often ask where I heard these jokes. In a weird way, my father is a semi-celebrity among my friends, especially strange since only my closest friends have seen him, and they probably only saw him once.

All in the Family
When Carroll O'Connor died the only person I know who was impacted as much by the loss as me was my father. Something about his roll in All in the Family just stuck with me. While I did not do the majority of my watching of this show with my father, he was the one who turned me to it initially.

Resident Evil
The horror game boom that has played a giant roll in my life probably started here. I watched my father play through the entire Resident Evil Directors Cut video game before actually playing it myself. It was campy and awful, and still is, but the entire experience was enjoyable because of my dad. The game itself found solid ground for me when I generally felt betrayed by Wesker at the end. I don't know why, but I just did.

Fatal Frame
Pure terror. Why don't more people talk about this game? It would have gone under my radar for quite a bit longer had my father not bought it and played it. Despite the myth surrounding me, I'm not *really* afraid of ghosts, but if anything was going to actually inspire that fear it would be this game.

Art
This is something I did as a kid, as most kids do. You draw, you create. The only reason I kept doing it was because someone said "Hey, your dad used to do a lot of art, it's a shame he never tried to go anywhere with it". I'm not sure why he quit, all I can really say is that if there is a dream out there somewhere that you didn't get to live and it involves art, I took up the reins a long time ago. Not entirely by choice at first, though it has since grown into my own desire to succeed at something. So thanks, I think.

"I can't believe that there's a nightmare

on my street!"

The remake, or rather, reimagining of A Nightmare on Elm Street was pretty great. Reviewers will tell you otherwise, though, but that isn't something rare to the genre. It's pretty much expected.

It was by no means perfect, and in my mind didn't quite live up to the original, but the 1984 version of the film is kind of wedged into my heart pretty deep. Haley did not fall short as Freddy, and as a matter of fact, I'd say he did a fucking fantastic job. My issues with the film as a whole are somewhat 'minor', but they're enough to make a stark difference in my mind. For example, I had been led to believe that one of the biggest reasons for doing this reboot was to get Freddy away from being a wise-cracking killer. They do a good job of that, until the end of the film where Kruger gets a little dialogue heavy and starts to have that air of Englund about him.. the only difference being that it feels a lot more out of place with this Freddy than it ever did with Englund.

The first half of the movie literally had my heart racing, which almost never happens, and if it does, it's not for the length of time that it was. The suspense building that others will criticize as being 'expected and tired' is something that I applaud as feeling fresh. Part of that might be my knowing and expecting characters to die at a certain point, but that feeling should have been there with everyone, having seen the original or not. It's kind of just a goddamn genre thing. It got to me, and that doesn't fucking happen anymore, so I really just loved feeling uncomfortable again, like when I was a kid. Maybe it was just me though?

Of my two big problems with film, one was the use of CG at two particular parts that.. were really unnecessary. They should have just used spandex like they did in '84, and it would have looked great and been real. The other issue, and this might be a spoiler, is that the homage-death for our Tina character was very lackluster when compared to the original. I love watching a girl float around a room and get throw into the walls to the sounds of her back breaking just as much as the next guy, but.. I feel like I would have loved watching her get drug around the room in a far darker, bloodier, grisly mess (GRANTED this trick was done in the original movie and then AGAIN in Wes Craven's New Nightmare, but still.. the part felt like it wanted to be that scene, but didn't hit the mark).

So other than being a nit-picky fan-boy? Pretty great. I'd love to hear what other fans of the series, and genre, thought of it.