Category: Commentary

When There’s No More Room In Hell…

Published on by Chris Scullion2 Comments

“Something my granddad used to tell us. You know Macumba? Voodoo. My granddad was a priest in Trinidad. He used to tell us, “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.”

(Apologies in advance folks, this is a long one. Might want to make some hot chocolate and marshmallows and grab a blanket first)

On 1 January 2011, I launched a new site called That Was A Bit Mental.

The literal first words written for the site were as follows:

“What is the haps my friend. This is a new blog that I hope will actually take off and won’t become abandoned after two weeks like many of my projects do when I realise I don’t have any real spare time to do them.”

At the time, life was significantly more straightforward than it is now. I was living in London with a girlfriend, a full-time job and loads of free time in the evenings and weekends.

Continue reading “When There’s No More Room In Hell…” →

Movieland

Real-Life Mental – Movieland Wax Museum, Niagara Falls

Published on by Chris Scullion5 Comments

I love shit places. This should already be clear to you if you read about my previous trip to Popeye Village in Malta. So when I travelled to Canada in 2013 to visit my then-fiancée’s family and was told of the cheesiness that could be found at Niagara Falls, a trip to said Falls was arranged post-haste.

Let’s get the obvious stuff out the way first – Niagara Falls is amazing to see. Check this shit out (click the pics to embiggen):

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls

If I’m being honest though, as impressive as that was, it was something else that I fell in love with at Niagara. On the way to the falls I saw a novelty street filled with loads of cheesy shops and attractions, including Movieland: Wax Museum Of The Stars™.

Movieland

As I’d hoped, Movieland’s wax creations are of varying quality, and with all respect to them the majority of them aren’t very good.

In fairness, whoever decorated the place did a great job, because the environments the waxworks are placed in are much better than those in Madame Tussaud’s in London in my opinion, but obviously it’s the waxworks themselves that are the star attraction and it’s here where Movieland struggles.

Still, that doesn’t mean I didn’t have great fun – fun I will now transmit to you via the medium of photography. As ever, click on the pics to see them in all their grisly detail. Continue reading “Real-Life Mental – Movieland Wax Museum, Niagara Falls” →

TWABM Vol 2 eBook – FREE for a limited time!

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TWABM 2 coverIt’s that festive time of the year where giving is more important than receiving… or at least that’s what I try to tell my loved ones when I’m trying to get more Blu-rays from them for Christmas.

That’s why I’m giving you a Christmas present.

Last week I hit a delightful wee milestone, in that my ebook That Was A Bit Mental Volume 1 hit 600 downloads. For a wee book that has had zero publicity other than a few tweets, I’m delighted with this.

To celebrate, and to get you in the Christmas spirit, I’m giving you my follow-up ebook, That Was A Bit Mental Volume 2.

Yes, just giving you it. For free. Continue reading “TWABM Vol 2 eBook – FREE for a limited time!” →

TWABM Vol 1 eBook – FREE for a limited time!

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Back in October, I released the first ever That Was A Bit Mental eBook. A few people bought it – these people are considered legends.

Then, in January this year, I dropped the price. A few more people bought it – these people are considered friends.

TWABM ebookThe rest of you, those who have yet to buy it, I consider work in progress. One day you will hang on my every word and treat every new review like another little droplet from heaven. But you need more convincing.

Of course, I’m only joking! *glares* Either way, I’m not going to be updating the site for a couple of weeks, so I recommend you spend that time catching up on some of the other 223 reviews already on That Was A Bit Mental.

Since the best way to do this is read the aforementioned eBook, which contains special ‘Writer’s Cut’ versions of the first 100 reviews on the site – complete with re-written jokes, extra bits and bonus trivia for every film – I’ve decided to do you a little favour.

For the next two weeks – that’s until the evening of Sunday, August 10 – you can download a PDF version of the That Was A Bit Mental Volume 1 eBook, right here, free of charge. Continue reading “TWABM Vol 1 eBook – FREE for a limited time!” →

Eurovision 2014: My liveblog

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment

If you don’t think the Eurovision Song Contest should be on this website, you’ve clearly never seen it before.

Its selection of ‘unique’ performances means it sure as shit qualifies as “a bit mental”.

Here, then, are my entire thoughts on the show’s performances, as I tweeted them at the time. Continue reading “Eurovision 2014: My liveblog” →

Upcoming reviews

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Hello friend!

As you’ll know if you’ve been regularly checking the site, That Was A Bit Mental is once again producing film reviews on a relatively regular basis. Since the start of 2014 I’ve already posted 24 reviews, and considering we’re only into March and I posted a total of 23 articles in the whole of 2013, that’s pretty good going.

I thought I’d take a minute to let you know what reviews I have planned for That Was A Bit Mental in the coming months. This is by no means a definitive list – there are some films in here that may not get reviewed any time soon, and there may be some films not in the list that end up getting reviewed. It’s just a general plan.

If there’s anything not on here that you want to see me tackling, by all means let me know by commenting below or emailing me at chris@thatwasabitmental.com – I’ll happily try to track down and review any films you recommend.

That said, here’s what you can roughly expect to see on That Was A Bit Mental over the next few months. Continue reading “Upcoming reviews” →

Help! Fill in the TWABM survey and share your thoughts on the site

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You know, for the most part I’m doing this site blind. The reviews and features I post on TWABM are really just based on how I’m feeling at that time.

However, I really want to improve this site and so I want to know exactly what sort of things you’re interested in reading about.

At the moment the only real feedback I get is a hit count that lets me see which reviews are getting more hits than others. However, there are a load of varying factors – the time they’re posted, when I tweet links to them, how I sell those reviews – that affect those results.

So, if you’ve got a spare five minutes, I’d hugely appreciate it if you could fill in this quick survey and let me know what you think of the site. It can be anonymous if you like, but you can also pop your name on the end if you want.

All you have to do is follow this link and fill it in. Thanks!

Hey you! Fund Worrying Drake’s next film or I will hunt you down

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Right, listen up.

I’m a big admirer of John McPhail and his indie film studio, Worrying Drake Productions. Worrying Drake has already released four brilliant short films, the latest of which – Just Say Hi – I wrote a blog about a while back.

Worrying DrakeNow shit’s getting serious, though. John’s planning his first full-length motion picture, called Where Do We Go From Here, and he needs your help. And if you don’t help him, so fucking help me. I will punch an orphan.

Watch the video below explaining why you should fund Worrying Drake’s latest film, and if you’re interested then pop over to their Indiegogo page and chuck some greenbacks in their direction.

If you’re able to, I recommend at least going for the £25 option because trust me, when (not if) these guys finally make it big, you’ll want to have their short films on DVD so you can be all cool as fuck and say you were into them before they went all Hollywood.

That Was A Bit Mental in 2014 – Onwards and upwards

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Last year I posted a grand total of 23 articles on That Was A Bit Mental. This year is only eleven days old and already this is the tenth article posted.

"Right, who's covered up my eyeholes with black card again? It's not funny lads, that's health and safety, that is"
By the end of the month, every Halloween and Friday The 13th film should have a review on the site

There are a few reasons for this. Last year was a pretty hectic one in my life, with various major events taking place at different points in the year.

At the start of the year I took on a new job, as the Games Editor of CVG. Moving from single-format publications (Official Nintendo Magazine and Nintendo Gamer) to a multi-format one required a different mindset and a different working style, so in the first few months I was so focused on that my personal site – which is only a hobby, mind – had to take a back seat.

In May I got married to my awesome wife Louise. Anyone who’s ever been married knows how much of a bastard it is to plan the wedding, so that took up loads of free time too. Continue reading “That Was A Bit Mental in 2014 – Onwards and upwards” →