While on her way home driving in torrential rain, student Michelle runs out of fuel at the worst possible moment, she just makes it to a petrol station where a strange looking man with a terrible stutter fills up her car. After previously handing over her credit card the man calls her into an office and says that the credit card company need a word with her, she reluctantly enters the office and finds a dead tone upon picking up the phone. The man locks the door and tries to stop her from leaving, Michelle manages to break free and speeds off in the car however she never makes it home.
On the college campus where Michelle was a student, news of her death has yet to reach the students and teachers there. A group of students are talking about a story also known as an urban legend where a psychology teacher went crazy and slaughtered all the students nearby. Just when the students think this is all a myth they start being killed off one by one in the most grotesque manners which were once thought to only be urban legends… until now.
Urban Legend is a teen slasher film that was released around the time of films like Scream and I know What You Did Last Summer, these have now become classic teen horrors however Urban Legend somehow managed to slip under the radar and I had never even heard of it until a few weeks ago when it was showing on Sky Movies.
The reason
that this film gradually faded into obscurity is because there’s nothing original about it, it’s almost as if it tries too hard with the plotline. Teenagers aren’t going to be familiar with urban legends that are hundreds of years old therefore in a way they’re alienating their core audience. Sometimes complicated films can work because the plotline is so strong and they manage to reign in a wide spectrum of viewers unfortunately Urban Legend tries to be too clever for it’s own good which is why films like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer work, they’re simple but highly effective.
The story of this film I feel is quite farfetched and again is another chink in the armour for the production team, I feel that if this was just a simple run-of-the-mill teen slasher film it would have worked a lot better. I admire them for trying to do something different and it is a relatively entertaining film unfortunately it just doesn’t quite hit the mark that Wes Craven managed to hit with his monster cult classic Scream.
I’m a big fan of teen horrors and I feel they’ve come a long way over the years, since 1997 which was when Urban Legends was released teen horrors have become a lot more advanced, not just where special effects are concerned but modern horror as well. Films like Final Destination and Saw have defined the decade known as the naughties with their cleverly written storylines yet still maintaining the gore which is what most teenagers feed off when they watch a horror film. Urban Legend has not aged well, especially when you view the scenes of the college students in their local campus, it comes across more as a spoof movie with the heavy rain outside, it almost seems to be too clichéd to be believable.
Having said that, I did enjoy this film more than I was expecting to, I assumed that this was going to be a film that I would switch off after 15 minutes and completely forget about but for all it’s downfalls it’s actually a very inventive film that hooked my attention right from the offset. The beginning is strong and it echoed the premise of Scream with the brutal murder of an innocent teenager at the start which sets the scene for the entire movie; to guess who the killer is. This premise worked well 10 years ago but now it has to be pretty clever to outwit someone because we’ve seen it all before.
I like how this film plays with your sense of reality, even if you’re not familiar with all the ways in which the teenagers are killed as I wasn’t you know in the back of your head that these are real urban legends and maybe they did happen in real life way back when therefore what’s to stop them happening again. This film reminds me of Se7en starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, the film focuses on a serial killer who kills people using the seven deadly sins (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride) although this was a far superior film with A-List actors who were highly capable of pulling off great performances Urban Legend tries it’s best and almost pulls it off and if it wasn’t for the few holes in the story this could have been a classic film.
The final reveal at the end was very good and although I had an inkling about who the killer could possibly be I was never 100% sure. This again follows the premise of Scream with the big shocking reveal at the end, unfortunately this film is much too familiar which is part of it’s downfall, it’s like a cheap carbon copy of the far superior Scream. The ending was good though and although it may have been a bit too obvious for some people the director did well in trying to lead us away from the real culprit. The inclusion of Robert Englund who played Freddie Kruger was very clever, it plays with your mind because you never know if it’s a double bluff or not. It’s almost like it would be too easy and obvious if he were the killer or maybe it’s a double bluff, you’re never quite sure. He was definitely the best actor out of the predominantly young cast and I was disappointed that he wasn’t in the film more, I suppose this gave him an air of mystery however he played a very intriguing character and it would have been nice to have seen more of him.
The acting was distinctly average, the cast is led by Jared Leto who plays the geeky school paper editor. His acting wasn’t bad however there was nothing stand out about it. The only other member of the cast I had heard of was Tara Reid who has a reputation for being an awful actress who hasn’t had a hit film in years since the days of American Pie. Although the acting was questionable this was sort of what I was expecting, the acting is usually of a substandard in these sorts of films so it can be overlooked slightly.
The special effects were decent enough, nothing compared to the SFX of today but it was a good effort for a film that was released around 12 years ago. The death scenes were scary at times but there was nothing that really stood out in my mind unfortunately.
The whole film has somewhat of an amateur feel about it, it seems to be simply a carbon copy of similar yet far superior films and although there was the odd enjoyable and tense moment there was nothing stand-out about it. If you’re looking for a good teen horror film try Final Destination or Scream.
The DVD is available from play.com for £3.99.
The special features include: Filmographies Theatrical Trailer Behind-the-Scenes Featurette Filmmaker's Commentary
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Production Year: 2004 - Horror - Director: Alexander Witt - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Thomas Kretschmann, Jared Harris, Sandrine Holt, Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Oded Fehr
Production Year: 2005 - Horror - Director: Wes Craven - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Christina Ricci, Joshua Jackson, Shannon Elizabeth, Jesse Eisenberg, Portia De Rossi, Michael Rosenbaum
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