Review #42: Urban Legend (1998)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Jamie Banks (Director): Valentine

Jared Lito (Paul): Fight Club (1999), Girl, Interrupted (1999), American Psycho (2000), Panic Room (2002), Alexander (2004)

Alicia Witt (Natalie): Law & Order: Criminal Intent T.V. series

Rebecca Gayheart (Brenda): Scream 2, Jawbreakers (1999), Urban Legends (2000), Santa’s Slay (2005), Nothing to Lose (1997), Earth 2 T.V. series (Noxzema girl pictured right)

Michael Rosenbaum (Parker): Smallville T.V. series (Lex Luthor for Christ’s sake!)

Joshua Jackson (Damon): The Mighty Ducks 1-3 (1992,1994,1996), Scream 2, Cruel Intentions (1999), The Skulls (2000), Cursed, and Dawson’s Creek T.V. series

Tara Reid (Sasha): Cruel Intentions, American Pie 1 & 2 (1999,2001), Josie & the Pussycats (2001), Van Wilder (2002), Devil’s Pond (2003), My Boss’s Daughter (2003), Alone in the Dark (2005)

Danielle Harris (Tosh): just in case you forgot...pictured right

Natasha Wagner (Michelle): Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), High School High (1996)

Robert Englund (Prof. Wexler)

Brad Dourif (Gas Station Attendant)

Trailer:



Film #3 of the "Fab4"

At a remote New England college, a mysterious person stalks and kills students for revenge. The students are killed one by one by various methods that coincide with a death of an urban legend.

In the opening sequence of the movie, Michelle is driving down a highway late at night returning to her college. She stops off at a derelict gas station to fill up with gas. The gas station attendant (Brad Dourif a.k.a. voice of Chucky) is a creepy stuttering dude who draws Michelle away from her car and locks her in the garage of the gas station.

Michelle concludes that he is trying to kill her or something and she bolts and drives off quickly. But little did she know that he was trying to warn her, as he shouted out to her as she drove off, “There’s someone in the back seat!” Uh oh.

A few minutes later guess who gets her head chopped off while driving and lip singing to Bonnie Tyler’s ♫ “Total Eclipse of the Heart” ♫ song by a hooded axe swinging psycho?

Next we’re introduced to the young cast of the film as they sit in on an “Urban Legends” course taught by Robert Englund (a.k.a. Freddy). Why couldn’t my college have “Urban Legends” courses? That would have rocked. Or even “slasher” or homicidal maniac courses? Man, my college career was robbed.

Anyway back to the cast…we have Natalie (the virgin/heroine...pictured right), Brenda (the best friend & Noxzema girl), Parker (the frat boy), Sasha (the slut...played by Tara Reid...insert your own joke), Paul (the heart throb wannabe boyfriend/love interest), and Damon (the prankster…also the dude from Dawson’s Creek…Ahh!!). On a side note: Joshua Jackson was an early front runner to play Anakin Skywalker. I’ll let you ponder that thought.

The group sits in on class as Freddy goes over popular urban legend theories and tries to disprove them; for instance, the soda-pop rock theory. UL says: If you drink a soda pop right after downing a package of pop rock candy, then your stomach explode or something like that. If that were true, I would have been dead a long, long time ago.

(Check it out...KISS on a Coke bottle...hmm...I knew they're the driving force behind evil. Rob Zombie knew!!! Remember: K.nights I.n S.atan's S.ervice)

But for the suspense of the film, let’s just say it’s possible. So we get a volunteer from the class to prove the theory wrong and it’s none other than….the Dawson’s Creek dude. So he goes up to the front of the class and puts on a show, pretends that he’s choke to death only to build suspense for the sake of suspense and then burst out in laughter as horrified classmates (the dumb ones) look on.

Afterwards we move on with the film and learn that Michelle (the dead chick) was best friends with Natalie during high school and the two of the shared a mysterious past together. The plot thickens.

We’re introduced to a couple of other characters in the film like Reese Wilson (the school’s campus security cop), Tosh (Natalie’s gothic roommate and hottie Danielle Harris), Dean Adams (the school’s dean who hates Natalie because of a troubled mysterious past she’s had), and a creepy janitor.

One by one associates of Natalie disappear and are murdered in ways of death by urban legends. The first one of them being the captain of the pee wee hockey team Mighty Ducks (or Dawson's Creek boy). Some of them she witnesses and nobody believes her of the disappearances. All the murders are performed by a mysterious winter parka hooded figure who mostly wields an axe around.

The film offers twists and turns of suspense as we try to figure out the killer in another late 90’s who-dunnit horror movie. Who is the killer? The creepy janitor? Freddy? The Dean? One of the friends? Or an unknown identity from Natalie’s past? Well the end of the film explains everything, I guess you’ll just have to sit down and watch it.

On a lighter note, here are some of my top 10 urban legends that weren't explored in the film. Not having these in the film disappointed me.
1. The Lochness monster. Come on' where's ole' Nelly?

2. The third gunman on the grassy noll. I know they know the "real" assassin for JFK. They're part of Hollywood. Oliver Stone knew, and I'm sure they know.

3. Area 51. Where's the aliens. Not even Roswell, NM? Something's going on here. The truth is out there.

4. Big Foot. Not just the monster truck, but the big fur ball himself. What a perfect movie to squeeze him into.

5. Masturbation makes you blind. Blind people want to know the truth.

6. The origin of the Baldwin family. Where do they come from? I know they're aliens that have taken over Hollywood. They have to be! Come on' they appear almost in every movie. Let's see here...we have Alec, Adam, Stephen, William, Daniel...do I need to go on?

7. Step on a crack and break your mother's back. A perfect death scene!

8. The mystery of the gnome. Wizard or lawn decoration. You decide.

9. Crop circles. We need an explanation. Maybe a movie about them...wait, never mind...I saw the movie Signs. Boy did that suck.

10. The shoe to penis size ratio. Myth or science?

Villain:

A mysterious hooded winter coat wearing psycho with a big axe that stalks his victims. Bonus points for: ***Spoiler *** Being a chick. Not just a chick, but it was the Noxzema girl. Highlight to read. The killer uses "urban legends" methods to kill…sort of…at least they try to.

Cast:

It was a typical cast of eye candy (for both genders) casted from popular 90's television shows. Alicia Witt fills the shoes of the lead female, Natalie. Natalie has troubled past that leads to her emotional breakdown in the film. And then she overcomes that to be the heroine. If you go out on a limb and call her character that.

Besides her, no one really had any performance that was great or above and beyond. If there was a good performance, it would go to the Noxzema girl, Rebecca Gayheart.

SFX/Gore:

Compared to the other 90’s franchises, it ranks amoungst the top in body counts. That's the way to do it! There was a total of eight deaths in the film. None of the deaths happened to be too gory or over the top. My favorite death happens to be the “Draino” death.

TNA:

Still no boobies. Five hot chicks, no sex acts and a couple of bondage scenes…but still no boobies. I’m starting to dislike these 90's movie franchises. Look to the right...I bet she's willing to give it up...even if we have to dangle a little baggie of coke in front of her! The owner of those fun bags below happens to be Tara Reid.

T.Gun's Take:

Hey, you gotta admit that it was a cool idea of using urban legends to commit murders. I just wish that there had been more “urban legend” style of deaths involved in the film. That would have been super! The movie seemed to get a way from that a little bit, but I guess you can’t plan every murder that way. But you can try harder!

Urban Legend is one of my favorite movies of the 90’s bunch. Unfortunately the film may have been the worst of the four, but I like it any way. I liked the smoke and mirrors idea and the movie provided enough good twists to hide the identity of the killer. I honestly pegged the killer in the movies Scream and I Know...Last Summer before I was able to peg the bad boy in this one.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
- Urban Legend opened September 27, 1998 and made $38 million at the box office ($10.5 million opening weekend)
- Many references to Freddy in Professor Wexler’s office
- Sarah Michelle Gellar & Jodi Lynn O’Keefe both auditioned for the role of Sasha, but backed out due to scheduling conflicts with their other projects (Buffy & H20)
- Latin motto of the university featured on the emblem in scenes translates into ***Spoiler*** “The Best Friend Did It” Highlight to read