That Was A Bit Mental

I’m delighted at the progress my little film blog’s been making on a monthly basis. I’ve even had a review quote on the back of a DVD (Cannibal, since you’re asking). Every month my hit count grows and that’s partly thanks to you, if you’re reading this right now. So thanks very much, I greatly appreciate it – especially if you’re one of the small group of lovely people who ‘like’ TWABM on Facebook.

People keep asking me what I’m going to review next or suggesting films for me to review. As long as the film suits the “That Was A Bit Mental” theme I’ll be happy to locate and review any films that are recommended or suggested to me. Despite the site title I’ve got pretty wide-ranging criteria (after all, I’ve got Faces Of Death and Blood Feast in there alongside The Diary Of Anne Frank and The Muppets), so as long as you don’t want me to review a rom-com or anything like that then don’t be afraid to comment below and recommend something.

Often I get asked to review a film I’ve already reviewed. With 148 reviews and counting that’s understandable, so why not check out my Review Index so you can get a quick glance of everything I’ve reviewed to date? You can find it here – if you’re relatively new to the site feel free to catch up on the reviews you’ve missed out on.

For now, the following (if you’re reading this on the homepage you’ll see it after the jump) is a list of films I own or have access to and plan on reviewing one day. If any of the films below particularly catch your eye let me know and I’ll prioritise those reviews. To get in touch either comment below, email me at chris@thatwasabitmental.com or Tweet me @TWABM or @scully1888 – and if there’s something you want me to review that isn’t on the list, feel free to suggest that too and I’ll add and prioritise it. After all, I write these reviews to entertain you, so I’m just as keen on reviewing the stuff you’re interested in reading about as I am reviewing the stuff you might not know about.

The films on the list aren’t exclusively the ones I’ll be reviewing, just the ones I definitely want to get round to one day. There’ll be plenty of other stuff on the site that isn’t on this list. Read more »

"Page breaks, you say? Well, as long as I still get to boot arses in the dream world you can do whatever you like mate"

Merry Christmas and stuff, hope you’ve been having a brilliant one.

That Was A Bit Mental will soon be turning one year old and with around 100 reviews in its first year I’m happy with its success so far, a success mainly down to any of you who’ve ever read the site, for which I’m eternally grateful.

If you’ve read the Spirited Away review below you’ll notice that I’ve put a page break in it, meaning you’ll only see half the review followed by a “Read more” link. Usually I’ve been putting the full reviews on the main site but I’m going to be changing to this method from now on for a few reasons.

1) Hits
I’m not going to dick about here – basically, the more hits I get the more I can convince film labels to send me review discs, and the more timely and useful film reviews will appear on the site as a result. I’ve already been very fortunate to review the likes of The Exterminator, Deadly Blessing and Cannibal before their release on DVD or Blu-ray, giving you a good chance to consider whether they’re worth buying. The more hits I get, the more of the same will start happening. Oh, here comes a break now, by the way. Read more »

The Shining is easily the best film showing on Monday

Halloween is that glorious time where nearly every big TV channel in the UK slaps some horror films on the telly to try and compete for the nation’s temporary love of all things creepy. But since there are now officially twelve million television channels on UK television (approx) it can be a bit daunting surfing through massive channel guides to find the diamonds in the rough. No need, because I’ve gathered the full list of horror films showing  on Monday 31 October, along with a little advice on whether I reckon they’re worth a watch. I’m nice like that.

Not listed below (because it’d take too long) is Sky Movies Classics’ top-notch line-up – because they’re showing nothing but Universal horror films all day, including The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Dracula, Return Of The Fly and such. If you want a bit of old-school horror, that’s your best bet. As for the rest of the channels, here’s what’s on offer.

Finally, most of these films are on the Sky movie channels, and since not everyone has those I’ve coloured those red to make it easier to identify the films you’re more likely to be able to see. Happy Halloween!

In order of transmission (Monday, 31 October):

Vampire In Brooklyn (1995)
2.55pm, Sky Movies Comedy – What do you get when you cross Wes Craven and Eddie Murphy? Pish 

Tremors 3: Back To Perfection (2001)
3pm, SyFy – Fairly rubbish sequel to the desert worm classic

Sorority Row (2009)
6.45pm, Sky Movies Sci-Fi & Horror – Forgettable teen slasher, typical ‘prank gone wrong’ stuff

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)
8pm, Sky Movies Modern Greats – Robert De Niro and Helena Bonham Carter put an interesting spin on the classic

The Ring (2002)
8pm, Sky Movies Showcase – Killer video tape kills you to DEATH after a week of bricking it 

The Final Destination (2009)
8.30pm, Sky Movies Sci-Fi & Horror – AKA Final Destination 4. Death comes back to fuck up more chancers 

Beowulf (2007)
9pm, 5* – Odd animated fantasy starring CGI Angelina Jolie and Danish monsters

The Shining (1980)
9pm, TCM – Kubrick’s masterpiece about isolation and its tendency to lead to insanity

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
9.45pm, Sky Movies Premiere – More grainy footage of ghosts fannying around while people sleep

Scream (1996)
10pm, Sky Movies Sci-Fi & Horror – Wes Craven’s fantastic return to form. Read the review here 

Halloween II (2009)
10pm, Sky Movies Showcase – Rob Zombie returns for more Michael Myers slaughterfun™

King Kong (2005)
10pm, ITV2 – Peter Jackson’s remarkable take on the tale of a monkey who just wanted to have sex with a tiny woman

Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
10.05pm, The Horror Channel – cryptically named Hammer Horror classic starring Peter Cushing

Addams Family Values (1993)
10.20pm, Sky Movies Family – More adequate adventures from the painfully odd family 

Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
11.20pm, BBC 2 – Ridiculous Big Brother knock-off with Michael Myers, Tyra Banks and Busta Rhymes. Seriously

Night Of The Demons (2010)
11.20pm, Sky Movies Premiere – Edward Furlong proves he still has a career in this remake

Burke And Hare (2010)
11.40pm, Sky Movies Comedy – Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis star in this graverobbing farce 

Return Of The Living Dead Part II (1987)
11.45pm, TCM – Fantastic zombie film as packed with comedy as it is tasty brains

Scream 2 (1997)
11.50pm, Sky Movies Sci-Fi & Horror – Craven strikes back in this decent sequel. Read the review here

The Amityville Horror (1979)
11.50pm, Sky Movies Showcase – The original that spawned countless sequels and imitations 

The Plague Of The Zombies (1965)
11.50pm, The Horror Channel – Zombies are used as cheap labour in this Hammer gem

Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)
12.45am, BBC 2 – Prequel to Canadian werewolf film that shows how it all came about

AvH: Alien v Hunter
1am, movies 24 – Silly sci-fi pish where an alien crash-lands on Earth and another alien arrives hunting it

Session 9 (2001)
1.30am, SyFy – Atmospheric and creepy thriller about an abandoned asylum. Recommended

Scream 3 (2000)
1.50am, Sky Movies Sci-Fi & Horror – Sky completes its Scream trilogy. Read the review here

So there you have it. Personally, I’d recommend the following for the perfect night of horror, if you don’t have the Sky movie channels:
THE SHINING (9pm, TCM)
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD PART II (11.45pm, TCM)
SESSION 9 (1.30am, SyFy) 

If you’re just looking for something so bad you can take the piss out of it with a group of friends, then Halloween Resurrection on BBC2 is your best shout by a country mile.

Happy Halloween!

Chris

If you haven’t read the first part of this before you can find it right here, but in essence here’s what it was about – WordPress keeps track of the things people search for to find my site, so in the first part I listed some of the oddest things people searched for to somehow end up being directed here.

That was around three and a half months ago however, and I’ve had plenty more visitors through odd searches since then. I thought I’d use this post to list some of the newer ones.

First of all, in case you’re curious, these are the ten search results that directed most people to the site:

Someone searched for "woman being eaten by snake" to get here. Oh you guyzzzz

1. the langoliers
2. children of the corn
3. mega python vs gatoroid
4. the exorcist
5. malachai
6. dinoshark
7. that was a bit mental
8. jaws 2
9. hell comes to frogtown
10. planet of the apes 1968

What do these results tell me? Mainly that the two Stephen King films I’ve reviewed on this site are the two that far and away get the most people coming here, but also that people fucking love killer animal movies. If I was ever to review Pet Sematary I think the internet would explode… so expect that one soon.

Anyway, you’re not here to see that. You’re here to see what sort of weird shit people search for. Here, then, are just some of the searches that genuinely directed people to this site. Read more »