Urban Legend

Urban Legend (1998) is a movie I rewatched for the first time in a long time on Tubi recently. The storyline follows a college campus where the kids one day at a coffee shop compare random horror urban legends. They try to figure out which story is more realistic than the others. Shockingly the murders they talked about start happening all over campus. This movie is directed by Jamie Blanks (Valentine) and stars Jared Leto (Suicide Squad), Alicia Witt (Dune), Rebecca Gayheart (Jawbreaker), Loretta Devine (Crash), Michael Rosenbaum (Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2), Robert Englund (Nightmare on Elm Street) and Tara Reid (American Pie). The storyline for this is fairly mediocre but still fun to watch unfold. This felt like a step down from other movies from this era like Scream, Final Destination and I Know What You Did Last Summer (I felt the same way about Blanks' Valentine film also). The acting in this is better than it should be and Leto is actually pretty good in this. The kill scenes are solid and worthwhile for horror fans. The twist at the end is a bit predictable but clever in a this era kind of way. Overall this isn't a masterpiece but is a worthwhile addition to the genre. I'd score this a 6-6.5/10 and definitely recommend seeing it.

This is yet another teen slasher movie, one of the many to have come out recently. I don't think this one quite ranks up to the SCREAM movies, but I think it was better than the I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER movies.

College student Natalie Simon, (Alicia Witt) mourning over the recent murder of an old friend, finds herself in great danger after a large number of students are being murdered. Each murder is performed in the style of an urban legend, which many of the kids know. Everyone is a suspect, including the best friend Brenda (Rebecca Gayheart), love interest Paul (Jared Leto) and friend/prankster Damon Brooks. (Joshua Jackson)

The premise of this movie is fairly cool, but the rest of the movie is basic slasher-movie type stuff. It's pretty predictable too, as are most movies like this one. The acting is not especially great, but some of it is fair. Alicia Witt does a good job as the star of this movie. Rebecca Gayheart probably does the best acting job of all, especially at the end.

Most all of the characters are boring and flat, aside from the main one. Many are simply there to get killed, and some that are more important are not as interesting. Still, this movie is better than I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and probably worth a rent.

Urban Legend is pretty much like Scream, but a lot less meta and a bit more atmosphere, unfolding as you'd expect it to, with a group of college kids getting killed in bizarre circumstances that all relate to half whispered local myths. One of their professors is Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund, and who better to lay down the tongue in cheek groundwork than such a familiar face and expressive, dynamic presence like him. Looking back on this it's fairly shocking how terrific of a cast it has and how it's been mostly forgotten in the annals of slasher archives. Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Joshua Jackson, Tara Reid, Natasha Gregson Warner and Danielle Harris headline as the varied campus rats, with Harris a standout as the obnoxious bitchy goth stereotype, far from her timid Jamie Lloyd in the Halloween films. There's a prologue cameo from horror vet Brad Dourif as well as appearances from Loretta Devine, Julian Richings, Michael Rosenbaum and a priceless John Neville, getting all the best lines as the college's salty Dean. The kills are all done in high 90's style, the story takes a Scream-esque twisty turn in the third act and as far as atmosphere goes, it pretty much outdoes the ol' ghostface franchise. Spooky good time.

I definitely feel that this film gave me nothing. Really nothing. It was full of clichés, as I've mentioned, and there wasn't a plot twist (at least to me).

Firstly, the clichés. I felt that I was watching a film, that desperately wanted to be better than "Scream" and to get all of its cult following. The concept, although it was about urban legends, something that I appreciated, it had many vibes from other slasher films, so I think that it lacks of authenticity.

Second, I knew who was going to die, and I could tell easily, during the film, which deaths were "fake", the ones that wanted to shock you a little bit.

Third, the characters. I mean, they managed to make even the characters to act in a cliché way. There was the serious final girl, the one whom they try to mislead you that he or she is the killer, but he's or she's not. The over the top excited person, the idiot prank boy, the blonde bimbo, the goth, and the a*****e! Nothing new, nothing creative.

As I've said, I knew 90% of what was going to be happen, so I haven't felt any thrilling moment. Except one scene.

Let's say the things that I liked about this film. First of all, the concept of the urban legends it was cool, and maybe the only prototypical. I also liked the first scene. It was actually very thrilling and gave me a very good first impression. The person who played the killer was cool and had good acting skills.

To conclude this review, I want to mention that this film is not necessarily bad, but to me it wasn't good either. It was something between "Scream" and "I Know what you did Last Summer". Plus urban legends. As a person that have seen many many similar Films, I have to say that I kind of knew the flow of the plot, so I did not found it thrilling. If you've never seen similar Films, maybe you'll like it. It's a fun film to watch, if you don't have anything to do.

The days of low-budget slasher films appear to be back with Urban Legend, a mildly entertaining but mostly lame variation on Scream with an attractive cast of young TV stars.

The plot centers on a series of campus murders in the mold of urban legends, most of which will be familiar even to the younger audience this is pandering to. What little suspense there is comes from the anticipation of these scenes, since the surrounding story is almost as ridiculous as the film itself.

If the screenwriters had concentrated less on incorporating the whodunit aspect into the plot and more on the legends themselves, they might have had something here. Experienced viewers will spot the killer's identity (and motive) early on, and those that don't will be fooled only because the conclusion is so completely ludicrous, not to mention mostly impossible.

Of course, most of this would be easily overlooked if Urban Legend was scary, but time and again, director Jamie Banks telegraphs the surprises far ahead, and doesn't know how to time the shocks. Over and over we get the sudden burst of loud music followed by a character running into another character, but it doesn't work. And that gets annoying after the third or fourth try. Occasionally Banks does get something eerie going, but the style is more suited to an action flick.

Of the cast, most of the actors more or less get by despite a less-than-clever script, though it's disheartening to see a talented young actor like Jared Leto wasting his time with a nothing role as the reporter. Horror favorites Robert Englund and Brad Douriff pop up in cameos, adding a nice touch to their brief scenes.

What we're left with is an intriguing idea undone by cliche after cliche. The legends are potent enough to hold your attention to the end, and horror fans will find a few gruesome goodies to amuse themselves. And even though the script needs to be about three times again as clever as it is, there is a great in-joke at the end about one of the actresses and a commercial.

That clever scene might have been the first scene of a clever movie. It's the last scene of this one.