“I’m not supposed to die.”

When it launched in 1993, iD Software’s DOOM immediately became one of the most influential video games of all time, revolutionizing the nascent first-person shooter (FPS) genre. Aspects of the game—which, by the way, was preserved by the Library of Congress in 2007—such as the hellspawn, weapons, horror, gore, and heavy metal, as well as the player character “Doom Guy” were instantly iconic and remain essential to every iteration of the games, even all these years later. In the wake of the 2004 series reboot Doom 3, Hollywood came a-callin’. The aughties were the era of video game adaptations, from Resident Evil to whatever the frig Uwe Boll was up to, and Doom seemed like a sure bet. But in practice it proved not to be so! The 2005 film not only failed to capitalize on everything that…well, that makes Doom Doom, it’s just not a great movie. I have now seen it three times and that is at least two times too many!

I love the game series, though. People still play the original game, adapting it to all kinds of wild formats like…electronic pregnancy tests, ATMs, and ultrasound machines. New Dooms continue to innovate while maintaining the building blocks of the foundation laid decades ago. The movie may have flopped, but the Doom Slayer still “rips and tears until it is done.” (imagine a wailing guitar here!)