Review: Urban Legend (1998)

Director: Jamie Blanks | 99 minutes | horror | Actors: Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Michael Rosenbaum, Loretta Devine, Joshua Jackson, Tara Reid, John Neville, Julian Richings, Robert Englund, Danielle Harris, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Gord Martineau, Kay Hawtrey, Angela Vint, JC Kenny , Vince Corazza, Balázs Koós, Stephanie Mills, Danny Comden, Nancy McAlear, Shawn Mathieson, Clé Bennett, Danielle Brett, Roberta Angelica, Matt Birman, Brad Dourif, McDonnell, Silvio Horta, Michael Norton

‘Urban Legend’ is a standard high school slasher, the type of horror film that dates back to the days of ‘Halloween’ and ‘Friday the 13th’ and in which a bunch of handsome and preferably promiscuous young people are hunted and slaughtered by a usually masked serial killer. In the mid-nineties, this genre was revived again by the success of Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’, and ‘Urban Legend’ is one of the films that wanted to get a piece of it.

Of its kind, ‘Urban Legend’ is a predictable and not very shocking horror film that is not as fresh and stimulating as ‘Scream’ but still just does what it has to do and has some “interesting” murders in its arsenal that draw the viewer’s attention. is still held fairly firmly. One of these murders is right at the beginning of the movie. The victim is an attractive young lady who runs out of gas in the rain at night and her car just manages to get to a gas station where a scary, stuttering Brad Dourif – snake tongue from ‘The Lord of the Rings’ – is the gas station attendant. . Understandably, the girl does not dare to get out and just gives her credit card to the man through a barely opened window and hopes that things will be settled further. But then it turns out she has to come in. Indeed,

Like ‘Scream’, this is about a self-aware killer and group of involved parties, who are aware of the “rules” of the murders, which follow a set pattern. Only the build-up and anticipation are less exciting here, with just the narration of an Urban Legend by one of the characters in the beginning of the film and some background from Robert “Freddy Krueger” Englund, who teaches about folklore and legends. The investigation into the identity of the murderer does not come across as particularly involved or intense, and the killer himself is less menacing than major icons from, for example, ‘Halloween’, ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, and direct predecessor ‘Scream’. And the murders themselves are also less horrifying, although the movie certainly has its moments. Aside from the opening murder, there is also an original murder present that gives the viewer shivers as it moves into the main character. Those involved are lead character Natalie (Alicia Witt), her Goth roommate who likes rough and loud sex, and of course the killer herself. When Natalie comes home unsuspectingly and once again hears her roommate raging in bed in a dark room, she walks straight to her own bed, puts on her headphones, and turns to go to sleep. Getting up will give her a horrible hangover. When Natalie comes home unsuspectingly and once again hears her roommate raging in bed in a dark room, she walks straight to her own bed, puts on her headphones, and turns to go to sleep. Getting up will give her a horrible hangover. When Natalie comes home unsuspectingly to hear her roommate raging in bed in a dark room, she walks to her own bed, puts on her headphones, and turns to go to sleep. Getting up will give her a horrible hangover.

‘Urban Legend’ has a well-known pattern, with main characters who are not believed or taken for granted, false suspicions, false scares, but fortunately no story that uses too many or too far-fetched “twists” and with a lead actress, Alicia Witt, who at least not brain dead and knows how to fascinate with her acting and appearance. ‘Urban Legend’ is a film that is quite digestible as a snack, but certainly not one of the better films in the genre.