W.S.H.

This movie was shown as part of the BBC Weird Night schedule, most of which is available on Youtube.

The story focuses on a sceptical or rather rationale professor who engages in conversations about a number of urban myths. This movie however is more on the side of those who believe such nonsense, so its basically like a hit piece on scientific thought, with the professor being set up to look silly and to experience some of the urban myth outcomes he states aren't true. Its mean spirited approach makes you wonder just what kind of embarrassment and humiliation the people who have rated this movie highly have experienced? As its common knowledge that conspiracy theory people not only have to hold these beliefs, but that they also have to insist on trying to force you to take on board their crazy made up stories. Which of course tends to lead to them being ridiculed on a regular basis. This movie is the result of this process. Its obvious from reading the positive reviews on here the glee in which the reviewers relish the scientist coming to harm, simply for no, I don't believe your nutty stories because I am a qualified scientist who relies on data.

That is where we are with this garbage.

The only plus of the movie is the use of The Future Sound Of London being heavily featured throughout.

So unless you have a thing for silly ideas being believed over science or you enjoy hearing about disgusting scenarios you are unlikely to find anything of substance here.

For fans of this movie, they can have the fantasy that they are correct, the rest of the planet will have reality and reason thanks very much.

Riveting drama exploring the world of folklorist collection urban legends. A rationalist folklorist believes urban legends are apocryphal tales, not rooted in truth but contemporary anxieties. He is proved wrong in a catastrophic experience in his academic office whilst contributing to an online Folkloric seminar. His rival folklorist Bill Ellis intuits what has become of Professor Pulling and understands he has gotten too close to his material and has himself begun to live out the narrative of one of the legends under his review. The ultimate sushi involves the insertion of baby octopi into the lower abdomen, which risks the laying of octopus eggs in the gastro intestinal tract. The resulting gestation of further octopi leads to a grotesque denouement.

'W.S.H' unfolded on the premise that - as the chief protagonist yells in a wood in the first scene - "Urban legends are disgusting!". Indeed, the many dramatised 'ULs' that follow emphasise the point; A major(fictional)cake company is almost brought to its knees by the fact that a male worker has been putting his own brand of cream into their 'Mary Jane Banana Cream Pies'; the protagonist, a reporter and UL researcher is hired by the company chairman to investigate - apparently blissfully unaware that he too is endangered by another form of food contamination (a meal he consumed early in the film contained squid eggs which hatch and gestate within him.)

Legends are retold by voxpop participants at intermittent points in the film. We hear the famous one about the couple whose 'Batman and Robin' love-game lands them in hospital. We then hear a variation on the latter, where a man is tied, face down and naked, to a bed by a girl who has brought him home to her place, only to have two gay men - dressed as Batman and Robin - step out of a cupboard in the room and have their way with him.

We also see supposedly genuine securicam footage of a fast-food restaurant worker relieving himself into the staff coffee-pot. The film's finale sees the baby squid emerge from the reporter's mouth in a spray of ink and blood. Other common, modern and twisted myths are mentioned and dramatised. The film was originally aired by the BBC - on their BBC2 channel - in October 1992 as part of a 'Weird Night'. Other highlights of this theme-night included a slightly unsettling, though factual, 'Fortean Review of the Year', narrated by Scots actor Tom Conti - a spooky high-point being a brief overview of the Gloria Ramirez case - and a sad,lump-in-the-throat-inducing documentary on the last ever performances of the last ever carnival-freak-show in the US. The 'Fire' episode from the first X-Files series was also screened that night.

'WSH' has not been repeated on the BBC since 'Weird Night' - it has not even been granted, but merits, a video release. It was, is a far superior exposition of urban mythology than the two recent slasher movies in the 'Urban Legend' franchise. Weird s**t certainly does happen, so maybe we can expect the BBC to actually repeat a programme that deserves to be re-screened.