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I really wish I knew more about music. There must be a name for the kind of loud, sudden chord that slasher movies depend on. You know the effect. The foreground is filled with the heroine, carefully framed so that we can see nothing behind her. She turns around, there's a shock cut to a big closeup of another face, and on the soundtrack we get the thwaaaaank! of the chord. Then we realize--hey, it's only Natalie! Or Brenda! Or Michelle! "Sorry--didn't mean to scare you," Natalie/Brenda/Michelle says, while the heroine grins foolishly and both parties laugh with relief. I've got a tip for Natalie/Brenda/Michelle. When the campus is in the grip of a mad slasher, the dead outnumber the living in the dorms, and security guards start sliding through pools of blood--it is seriously uncool to sneak up silently behind someone and grab them by the shoulder. If they're packing, you're dead meat.

"Urban Legend" makes heavy use of what we may as well name the Creep Chord. It's the movie's punctuation mark. There's a moment of relief, and then the buildup, and then thwaaaank! Just to keep things interesting, about every third time it's not Natalie/Brenda, etc., but a slasher with an ax.

The slasher prowls the campus wearing one of those L.L. Bean subzero Arctic parkas where the fur lining on the hood sticks out so far that you can't see the face inside. If I were dean of students, I'd ban all forms of head covering for the duration of the emergency. Of course, the dean of students may be the killer; this movie doesn't waste a single character, every single person in it is possibly the slasher.

Still, you have to wonder why a person in a conspicuous parka isn't noticed creeping around the campus and even into heated swimming pool area (sorry--that one's a false alarm; the person in the parka is an innocent who just happens to like to wear a subzero parka in hot and humid environments). I am reminded of " I Know What You Did Last Summer " (1997), in which the slasher dressed at all times in a slicker and a rubber rain hat, like the Gorton's Fisherman, and yet was never noticed in a coastal resort town in summer when it was not raining.

"Urban Legend" is in the " Scream " tradition, which means that its characters are allowed to be aware of the traditions of their genre. In this case, the killings are deliberately planned to re-enact famous urban legends. I will reveal only the opening example, in which a woman grows frightened when the alarming goon who runs the gas pumps tries to lure her inside the station. She beans him, breaks a window and escapes back to her car--too late for him to warn her there's an ax murderer hiding in the back seat.

My favorite Urban Legend, the Phantom Doberman, is overlooked by the movie, but it hits a lot of the other bases, including the baby-sitter who traces a threatening call and discovers it's coming from ... upstairs. These kinds of movies used to star the dregs of the B-movie stables but the casts look a lot better these days; up-and-coming stars are assembled and knocked off one by one. The real killer is the one person you would never, ever, not in a million years, even remotely suspect, unless your I.Q. is above 60.

The film is competently made, and the attractive cast emotes and screams energetically, and does a good job of unwisely grabbing one another by the shoulders. The gore is within reasonable bounds, as slasher movies go; oddly enough, today's truly violent movies are the comedies. The stars include Alicia Witt , Jared Leto , Natasha Gregson Wagner , Rebecca Gayheart and Robert (Freddy Krueger) Englund, who is to slasher movies as the Quaker is to oatmeal.

"Urban Legend" is not art. But for its teenage audience, it serves the same purpose, which is to speed the meeting of like minds. Everybody knows how it works: The guy puts his arm casually around his date's shoulders. Onscreen, Natalie/Brenda, etc., goes poking around in the abandoned campus building where the massacre took place years ago. The Creep Chord blasts out of the Dolby speakers, everyone jumps, and if in the confusion his hand slips south, well, who says cable will ever replace the theatrical experience?

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Urban Legend (1998)

Rated R For Horror/Violence Gore, Language and Sexual Content

Alicia Witt as Natalie

Jared Leto as Paul

Rebecca Gayheart as Brenda

Robert Englund as Prof. Wexler

Natasha Gregson Wagner as Michelle

Directed by

• Jamie Banks
• Silvio Horta

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Urban Legend Reviews

A campy slasher that is just barely pulled off thanks to its charming cast and its inclusion of iconic urban legends, bringing to life stories that had previously only been told as ghost stories.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 24, 2023

Urban Legend is accused of being too imitative of Scream. [...] However, late screenwriter Silvio Horta‘s subversion of the film’s entire motif is something that goes unnoticed.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 21, 2023

While it does not boast itself as the best, the legends it holds, the horror it honors, the red herrings it constantly crafts and the twist ending make it at least an entertaining viewing experience.

Full Review | Aug 28, 2022

It was just stupid. The acting, the story, nor the characters made any sense.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 28, 2021

This was a dumb movie with a terrible killer reveal that is just completely illogical. Also the outfits of the characters were insane.

Not every film is going to be a masterpiece. Some entertainment works with its audience simply because it is disposable.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | May 27, 2021

A solid slasher that copies from the Scream template, whilst remaining its own separate entity.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 22, 2021

Like many unmemorable college-set slashers, the film becomes all about how the deaths might one-up each other in gruesomeness.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/10 | Sep 25, 2020

It may have that '90s stank on it (obnoxious and moronic characters), but the filmmaking artistry is commendable, especially in its handling of the killing sequences.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Mar 6, 2020

Thankfully Natalie is offset by Urban Legend's greatest asset and the source of the vast majority of its historical goodwill: Gayheart's balls-to-the-wall performance in the climax.

Full Review | Feb 22, 2020

The jokey demeanor following the ultimate reveal destroys any and all momentum.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 21, 2018

Urban Legend starts off very clever, then gets a little less clever the longer it goes on.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 21, 2018

There isn't much real wit, or suspense, in this parade of slayings.

Full Review | Jun 7, 2018

The concept is sound, but it's gruesomely marred in the execution.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Jul 25, 2015

The makers of Urban Legend stock their film with so many one-dimensional, cookie-cutter stereotypes that its potential for exploiting deep-seated fears gets numbed.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 2, 2014

It's surely not the worst slasher film ever made, but it wastes the hint of creativity it promises from the outset.

Full Review | Oct 21, 2013

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 18, 2008

This is just another post-SCREAM fest desperately in need of a gimmick to distinguish [itself].

Full Review | Jul 22, 2008

Watchable...[but] a time-waster, with an insulting ending that unfortunately takes it down a few pegs. [Blu-Ray]

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 21, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Apr 9, 2005

Urban Legend (1998)

• User Reviews
• This is a movie similar to Scream series where the unknown serial killer uses urban legend stories for murder.
• I would say if you like Scream series you will like this movie.
• One time watch thriller movie.

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URBAN LEGEND

"promising premise; perverse practices".

What You Need To Know:

An urban legend is an incredible story, telling an unusual event, usually told as true and set in the recent past. In the new horror movie, URBAN LEGEND, two students, played by Alicia Witt of TV’s CYBIL and Jared Leto of TV’s MY SO-CALLED LIFE, try to stop a killer recreating these odd events on a fictional Northeastern campus. As body counts mount, the killer is revealed, motives are explained, and a final battle involving the two students and a security cop ensues.

(PaPaPa, FR, LLL, VVV, SS, N, A, D, M) Pagan worldview with urban legends & superstitions; 25 obscenities & 8 profanities; excessive violence including man run over by car, man impaled, man’s ankles cut, man hung by the neck, woman killed by ax, man forces man to drink Draino, girl smashes window, girl hits guy, woman falls, woman tied up, gunfire, man kills dog in microwave implied, & implied car crash; briefly depicted fornication, sexual humor, implied oral sex, & sexual paintings in book; women in bikini; alcohol use; smoking; and, rebellious attitudes, lying, urination implied, & threats to steal kidney.

More Detail:

While the premise of this movie is certainly original and fresh, the explanation of the urban legends is too much of a show stopper. It is too much exposition for a horror movie. Throughout this movie, the dialogue is cheesy, sexual or just plain stupid. On top of its cruel humor and death scenes, URBAN LEGEND also includes some rude sex scenes. Hence, URBAN LEGEND, despite its clever premise, evinces a mean spirit, a cynical attitude and an enjoyment of perversity. Like DISTURBING BEHAVIOR, it features today’s television teenage stars acting even more immoral than they do on television, and suffering the consequences by a psychotic moral arbiter whose only solution is murder.

‘Urban Legend’ is a 1998 slasher time capsule 

“Urban Legend,” a dumb but kinda classic film from the late Nineties slasher boom, could exist in 1998 but not five years later. Much of writer Silvio Horta’s plot advances via Pendleton University friends Natalie (Alicia Witt) and Paul (Jared Leto) being unable to quickly and efficiently find information. 

Natalie suspects Damon (Joshua Jackson) has been murdered by the parka-clad Urban Legend killer, but he could be on a snowboarding trip. But her roommate, Tosh (Danielle Harris), is always using the room’s dial-up internet, so she can’t call the resort to find out. Cellphones aren’t mainstream yet, so she can’t call Damon directly. 

Even more remarkably, reporter Paul can’t research the Stanley Hall Massacre of 25 years earlier to find out if it was real or an urban legend. It turns out the massacre did happen and was thoroughly reported. It’s just that the 1973 Pendelton University yearbook is missing from the archives, and he can’t find a back issue of the school paper for that week. Once he does, he learns the story. 

“Urban Legend” (1998)  

Director: Jamie Blanks 

Writer: Silvio Horta 

Stars: Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart 

For a split second, “Urban Legend” is a commentary on authorities’ control of the media. But it quickly goes back to being a themeless mystery-slasher. 

Pre-information age? 

Granted, I’m currently looking up information about the movie on IMDb (I didn’t take notes or remember the characters’ names, the school name or the building name), so I should check my 2022 privilege.  

And actually, I have a soft spot for “Urban Legend” for being such a time capsule of 24 years ago. The technological changes since then remind me this movie is almost as far in the past as the Stanley Hall Massacre is to the characters. 

Looked at as a piece of entertainment, director Jamie Blanks’ film starts extremely strong and finishes rather weakly. (SPOILERS FOLLOW.) The cold open is the legitimately legendary “There’s someone in the back seat!” scene. If you look closely, you can see a dark figure shifting in the back seat before he/she strikes down the first victim, Natasha Gregson Wagner’s Michelle. 

After the final-act reveal of the killer, which is rather predictably Natalie’s friend Brenda (Rebecca Gayheart), the wrap-up takes forever and is increasingly ridiculous. It relies on Natalie and Paul becoming dumber than ever – most notably when they drive off before checking on the corpse of the killer who has fallen from a window. Brenda (now more invincible than Michael Myers) is in their back seat, natch. 

The heroes kill her again , and then she still pops up in a final stinger. Audiences of any era are right to groan. 

Self-interested students 

I saw “Urban Legend” when it came out, and in my review of the 2000 sequel , I wrote: “The original is initially entertaining but doesn’t hold up on repeat viewings.” I stand by that statement when analyzing the film in terms of plausible plot happenings and character behavior. 

Setting aside the technology of internet research and cellphones, one could argue “Urban Legend” hasn’t aged well because there’s an odd innocence to its crassness. When Damon fakes dying from Pop Rocks and Pepsi in front of the urban legends lecture class, I think we really are supposed to think he’s dying. Today’s viewer wouldn’t fall for that for a half-second. 

Every character is self-centered, and I think this was an attempt to portray “cool”; it was cinema’s unfortunately exaggerated take on Nineties disaffected young people. Even the seemingly decent Natalie participated in a ridiculous “flashing your headlights” prank in high school. 

Reporter Paul is the closest to being a decent person, as he’s the only one working to spread awareness of the serial killer. The college actively tries to hide it, hence why he can’t even find Stanley Hall Massacre information. But even Paul admits part of his motivation is to build up good clips to land a good job. 

Pre-nostalgia?

“Urban Legend” is stuck in a small window of history wherein it’s meta about pop-entertainment but not nostalgic about it. Horta includes references to Jackson being on “Dawson’s Creek” and Gayheart being in Noxzema commercials. 

Robert Englund and Danielle Harris are good actors, but I bet they were cast in part because they were known from the “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Halloween” films, respectively. I bet the “Urban Legend” filmmakers thought slashers were cool again because young audiences viewed the genre as winking fun. 

Through a 1998 lens, Englund’s and Harris’ roles here (he’s a professor of urban legends, she’s a goth chick) are smartly ironic, whereas their Eighties slasher roles were silly – they weren’t yet seen as classic trope-codifiers. 

The two sequels, in 2000 and 2005, move into the internet age, when yanking yearbooks and newspapers from the archive shelves is no longer a viable cover-up strategy. In 1998, this plot was barely plausible, and of course now it’s funny.  

But it’s the lazy self-centeredness of the students and broad self-awareness of those working on the film that make “Urban Legend” shallow and mediocre. On the other hand, this is so typical of late-Nineties slashers that this becomes a fascinating text to analyze 24 years later (when a reboot is in the works, natch). 

Click here to visit our Horror Zone.

Urban Legend

Reviewed by: Brian A. Gross CONTRIBUTOR

“U rban Legend,” a film by Jamie Blanks, is a project that shows ambition and panache, but in the meantime can’t resist winking at us periodically to let us know that it’s just a movie. It is the story of six coeds who are involved in a campus murder mystery involving urban legends. The ensemble features the lovely Rebecca Gayheart (Brenda) as the sensitive friend, Alicia Witt (Natalie) as the nice girl with secrets, Tara Reid (Sasha) as the trashy nympho, Micheal Rosenbaum (Parker) as the funny and cynical party guy, Jared Leto (Paul) as the cute and brash reporter and Joshua Jackson (Damon) as the crazy frat boy.

The setting is the fictional New England campus of Pendleton University. The trouble begins as a young woman is driving home one rainy night and is decapitated by an ax-murderer from her back seat; at the same time Professor Wexler (Robert Englund of “Nightmare on Elm Street” slasher fame) is starting his course on urban legends. He explains the history of them as though they trace back to our very roots as a people in the brave new world, though they really reflect the modern zeitgeist of shock, told by the party raconteur. His explanations are laughed at until the bodies start piling up.

The murders continue on campus until only two of our lovely young group are left; though you didn’t hear that from me. They are carried out gruesomely and the clues lead the viewer astray at every turn. This crowd is not interested in true mystery. They are the creators who don’t obey the rules they set forth in the world they created and, presumably, no one minds. The rule of thumb for a comedy is simply “was it funny?” so then the rule for these hip horrors should be, “was it scary?” The short answer is no. The frights are heart-leaps at shockingly loud sounds in key scenes; the kind that are forgotten moments later. It is the cinematic equivalent of Chinese food.

The very title of the film suggests the playful and frightening spook stories that we hear, but the story here is a ruse; it isn’t even a playful ruse to wit. It is illogical, self-serving and straining to be hip. The cliché’s abound gleefully: The university’s staff of the shady janitor; the staunch Dean who sweeps every disturbing improbability and murder under the proverbial rug; the eccentric ne'er-do-well cop (this time campus security). The postmodern marriage of the beautiful 20somethings—generally with television experience—and scripts that don’t call for actors, but recognizable faces, does tend to have box office rewards, however. This is not Oscar-courting territory but rather Best Kiss at the MTV Movie Awards work (with two of the four nominees in recent years being same-sex kisses).

The self-conscious humor doesn’t fare much better to those purposeful with the critical impulse. When Damon starts his car, only to hear the pop song “I Don’t Want To Wait” come blaring out, he shuts it off. It is the title song of the television show Dawson’s Creek which he has a starring role in. Later there is a joke about a participant in a campus urban legend being the Noxema girl; enter Ms. Gayheart who has been its television spokeswoman for several years. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not above bingeing on eye candy occasionally but I need a good meal sooner or later.

Violent content: less gore than your typical slasher movie but still more blood and mayhem than your typical viewer will be comfortable with (bloody axes, hanging, choking, bloody bodies, smashed cars, impaling body parts, etc). Sex/nudity: Several scenes of sex (one graphic) with Natalie’s roommate and some frank sexual talk by Sasha. Language: Normal levels of street language for a mainstream release (about two dozen instances of crude language).

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Blockbuster Inc. Review: A Glorious Return To 2000s Tycoon Renaissance

Death note's entire plot has one simple reason for starting that most fans missed, 1 gritty fantasy series is the perfect a song of ice & fire replacement (& has movies in the works).

The Urban Legend   featured some of the most iconic myths from across the world, but each movie in the trilogy didn't exactly execute them in the best way. Here's how each of the three installments compare to one another.

When  Urban Legend  released in 1998, it offered the teen horror sub-genre a unique take on the concept of urban legends . Throughout history, there have been numerous tales told of people lurking in the shadows, spirits who appear in mirrors when beckoned, and candies with the capability of exploding human organs. The concept of the first movie was enough to launch an entire trilogy, especially given the wealth of source material available to draw from. While these movies may have been entertaining for some viewers, they have all received overwhelmingly negative responses from critics. Now that Ryan Murphy's upcoming horror anthology  American Horror Stories   proposes revisiting some of the world's most iconic urban legends, it is the opportune moment to look back on some of the genre's most memorable attempts at compiling them into one feature-length movie.

Related:  Candyman: The Real Urban Legends That Inspired Tony Todd's Villain

Despite the fact that the  Urban Legend  trilogy wasn't well-received, it was an important marker in horror history. It showcased the transformation from 1990s teen horror that revolved around slasher stories into paranormal horrors. The first two installments heavily emphasize slasher characters and killers, while the third movie stands on its own as a venture into the supernatural. Each movie's individual ratings and how they compare to one another further showcases just how impactful this shift was to the genre as a whole. Without further ado, here's how each movie in the  Urban Legend  trilogy compares to one another.

3. Urban Legends: Final Cut

Released in 2000,  Urban Legends: Final Cut   follows a group of college students who are working on a film project that centers around urban legends. Some of its featured myths include cell phones causing cancer, black market organ theft, a carnival of "fake" corpses, and snuff movies. In comparison to  Urban Legend,  the sequel features substantially fewer stories than its predecessor, and focuses primarily on the concept of a slasher-style killer on campus. As Wes Craven's  Scream   made abundantly clear in 1996, slasher stories grew stale and predictable after their boom in the '80s;  Urban Legends: Final Cut  is no exception. Ultimately, it was formulaic and failed in its attempts to be humorous or satirical.

2. Urban Legends: Bloody Mary

In 2005, the trilogy altered their existing formula by shifting toward the paranormal horror sub-genre in  Urban Legends: Bloody Mary.  During the late-1990s, this sub-genre was growing increasingly popular due to the fact that hauntings could manifest in numerous ways. Urban Legends: Bloody Mary  focuses predominately on the well-known urban legend of Bloody Mary. While it is the only movie in the trilogy that features a singular myth, this approach actually worked in the franchise's favor. In fact,  Urban Legends: Bloody Mary  has the highest rating out of them all with a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes. By shifting from formulaic slashers to ghostly urban legends, the trilogy concluded on a high-note. Even so, it fails to beat out the first movie in the series.

1. Urban Legend

While it is not the highest rated of the three,  Urban Legend  unforgettably captured some of the world's most popular urban legends. It includes the aftermath of mixing Pop Rocks with soda, the old lady who dried her wet dog in a microwave, the existence of spider eggs in chewing gum, and the most popular urban legend, the man in the backseat . This movie used so many of the most well-known urban legends, and as a result, it was hard for its direct sequel to keep the same pace. The reason  Urban Legend  ranks so highly in the trilogy is because of how it seamlessly wove together each myth to create one cohesive story while retaining elements of classic teen slashers. While none of the movies in the  Urban Legend  trilogy are considered outright masterpieces by fans and critics, they do have some redeeming qualities, especially when they're attentive to shifting trends in the horror genre.

More:  Urban Legend Movie Reboot Officially Happening

• urban legend

Urban Legend Review

25 Sep 1998

Urban Legend

It was inevitable that once Scream set the teen horror bandwagon rolling, inferior rehashes would follow. To wit, Urban Legend, a film that takes the attractive young cast and bloody set pieces that initially attracted the punters to the Scream series, yet jettisons all the wit and style that made the Craven/ Williamson collaboration so distinctive.

It centres on Paul (Leto), Natalie (Witt), Brenda (Gayheart) and their pals at university who all sit around and discuss urban legends - the modern ghost stories just about everyone has heard some variation on. Many of these variations stem from their rather over zealous lecturer Professor Wexler (the inevitable Robert Englund). He teaches a class in Urban Legends revealing that this campus has its own legend - years before a killer went on a rampage through a now closed dorm building, killing several students along the way. Now it looks like the killer's back, and our attractive young cast are page one in his Most Likely To Get Butchered yearbook.

Despite a strong reputation for his early short movies, director Blanks delivers a wholly pedestrian feature debut in this by-numbers teen horror flick that could give you the impression Scream never really happened. (True, not all horror movies have to be ironic now but qualities like original or clever wouldn't go amiss). As ever with these movies, there's the odd impressive decapitation or blood curdling dismemberment - John Neville's punctured Dean being just about the best - and while some of the cast, particularly Witt, are fresh-faced and appealing, Englund really has out-stayed his welcome in the genre. At best, it could do for the fur-trimmed parka what I Know What You Did Last Summer did for the sou'wester, but that's about it.