“Don’t You Guys Get It? It’s Just Like That Urban Legend.”
I know I saw Urban Legend back when it was originally released in the theater, but that’s been almost 30 years. I’ve always wanted to see it again, but I finally made the time to do that. While not the best of the late 90’s slashers, but is still fun for fans of the genre.
The movie was released in 1998 in the wake of the success of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. It has a very 90’s cast and finds its own hook. You see, if early slashers were around holidays, inspired by Halloween and Friday the 13th, Urban Legend was going to copy Scream and be a self-aware movie about a killer making urban legends deadly.
The movie takes us to Pendleton, a college in New Hampshire. When a student dies, only one person takes it hard – Natalie (Alicia Witt). But when another student dies, she starts raising the alarm that a killer is on the loose on campus. Will anyone take her seriously before it is too late?
Yes, I am leaving out the urban legends used so you can discover them for yourself. They were ones I remember having heard when the movie came out, and I enjoyed seeing how they played out on screen. Who knows of these legends are still as known today, but for the time, it they were excellent choices.
The biggest complaint about the film is that it is a low rent Scream ripoff. I’m not going to argue with that. While you can argue about whether some of the elements are ripoffs or standard horror/slasher tropes, you can see the similarities. What it doesn’t have is the dialogue of Scream or quite the meta humor and commentary.
Or the suspense sequences. There are a couple that are decent and one pretty good chase sequence, but many of the sequences don’t have the suspense that Scream does.
Like with many slashers, you just have to ignore logic. And it starts with the opening sequence with you just know wouldn’t happen that way. But then again, when has a slasher ever had logic or realism going for it?
Apparently, the film was originally going to be set during winter, which would help explain the killer’s costume. Considering the red herrings all needed to have that same winter jacket, I wish they’d kept that. But what’s done is done.
Let’s talk the cast. As I said, it is stacked. We’ve got horror legends Robert Englund and Danielle Harris plus Brad Dourif in an uncredited part. I already mentioned Alicia Witt, but we also have Jared Leto, Rebecca Gayheart, Michael Rosenbaum, Joshua Jackson, and Tara Reid plus Loretta Devine as the college’s security officer. I did find one cast member’s performance to be rather stiff, especially the further we got into the film. But the rest of the cast is pretty good. And the killer is deliciously deranged when revealed.
Speaking of which, the plot is pretty well thought out. There is a reason that things unfold the way they do, which I appreciate for a film like this. Well, except the fact that the killer goes after everyone but the final girl, who is the true target. But there I go expecting too much from one of these films again.
This is an R rated slasher. While not quite as gory as some in the genre, it is still rated R for a reason, so keep that in mind before you decide to watch it.
And that final scene? It will make you do a double take for sure.
This is not a top tear slasher. I don’t know that I will have the need to watch it again any time soon (although I am very curious about the sequel). But if you are a fan of the subgenre, you’ll be glad you gave Urban Legend a watch.
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