Urban Legend
USA/France 1998
Reviewed by Kim Newman
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Pendleton University, New England. Student Michelle, driving home late, escapes from a stuttering gas-station manager. He is trying to warn her about the axe murderer hiding in the back seat of her car. News of her death spreads across campus, especially affecting her estranged friend Natalie who is taking Professor Wexler's course on urban legends. When Damon, a prank-playing friend, is murdered in front of Natalie in a re-enactment of an urban legend, she confides in fellow students Brenda, Parker, Sasha and Paul. Parker floats the theory that a serial killer is recreating urban legends.
Natalie's roommate Tosh is murdered, leaving the message "aren't you glad you didn't turn on the lights?" in blood, but the Dean writes her death off as suicide. Natalie confides in Brenda that she broke her friendship with Michelle after they played a prank based on an urban legend which resulted in a boy's death in a car accident. During a frat party, the killer murders the Dean, Parker and Sasha. Paul, Brenda and Natalie flee. Brenda and Natalie find Wexler's body in the trunk of Paul's car and run from him, but it is actually Brenda - the girlfriend of the boy Michelle and Natalie killed - who is the murderer. Paul and Natalie fight off Brenda, who falls into a river. Later, on another campus, Brenda listens as someone recounts the story of her murder spree as an urban legend.
Review
Urban Legend calculatedly cross-breeds the youth-appeal of Wes Craven's Scream (especially the poster design), the novelty serial killer of Se7en, and the persecuted guilty-teens motif of I Know What You Did Last Summer. This yields a silly but not unlikable formula horror picture, one exactly like the wave of early 80s movies that were name-checked in Scream 2 (The Dorm that Dripped Blood, The House on Sorority Row, Graduation Day, Final Exam). Credibility is not a high priority. The guessable revelation of who the guilty party under the hooded parka is glosses the details. For instance, how does this killer get the first victim to make a late-night visit to an out-of-the-way gas station? How can he be sure the stuttering attendant will be unable to warn anyone? How can he swing an axe with killing force inside a small car? And how come the entire plot is directed at the less culpable Natalie rather than Michelle, initiator of the original incident?
The monomaniacal thesis, elaborated both by Robert Englund's blatant red-herring professor and wiseacre Parker, also stumbles because there aren't enough urban legends to go round. Despite references to the 'dog in the microwave' and the 'snack food and soda intestinal explosion' stories, the string of murders that clutters up the second half of the film are just stereotypical stalk-and-hack killings. Some key legends mentioned in the film ('dead granny on the roofrack', for example) are left out, and only a token stab is made at the 'call her name five times' tale, to avoid invoking memories of Candyman. That film was more sophisticated in its deployment of urban legends and was actually urban in setting. (Intriguingly, almost all the stories classed as urban legends take place on lonely roads or woods miles away from cities.)
Nevertheless, Urban Legend manages somehow to be rather endearing, from Natasha Gregson Wagner's opening bit (what must now, after Scream, be called 'the Drew Barrymore position') to the hokey shaggy-dog punchline. Alicia Witt, whose resemblance to Gillian Anderson is a short-term advantage but long-term handicap, is fine as the 'final girl', shouldering all the sensitivity while her friends carry on with the now-obligatory Scream-style callousness. (Best excuse for ignoring screams for help: "She's doing a performance piece to commemorate the massacre.") Lithium-chugging, pierced, goth Tosh breaks up the overwhelming preppiness of even the nastiest frat kids, and there's an amusingly transparent murder set-up scene as Damon drives Natalie out to the woods, pretending to be understanding in order to make out with her.
First-time director Jamie Blanks isn't in Wes Craven's league when it comes to timing a sudden lurch-into-the-frame shock, and writer Silvio Horta doesn't have Kevin Williamson's knack for referentially postmodern yet convincing teen talk, but this is a movie that follows rather than makes trends. It may well be most notable for echoing Halloween H20 by cementing the newest addition to the repertory of slasher clichés: the comic-relief black security guard - chubby middle-aged Loretta Devine, devoted to early 70s Pam Grier movies - can be killed but only if she turns out to be alive after all a few minutes later.
Credits
- Producers
- Neal H. Moritz
- Gina Matthews
- Michael McDonnell
- Screenplay
- Silvio Horta
- Director of Photography
- James Chressanthis
- Editor
- Jay Cassidy
- Production Designer
- Charles Breen
- Music
- Christopher Young
- ©Phoenix Pictures, Inc.
- Production Companies
- Phoenix Pictures presents a Neal H. Moritz/Gina Matthews production
- In association with Canal + D.A.
- Executive Producer
- Brad Luff
- Associate Producer
- Brian Parker
- 2nd Unit Production Co-ordinator
- Susan Phillips
- Unit Production Manager
- Brian Parker
- Location Manager
- Peter Boboras
- Post-production Supervisor
- Bill Brown
- 2nd Unit Director
- Michael McDonnell
- Assistant Directors
- David McAree
- Jonathan Wright
- Sarah Campbell
- Richard Black
- 2nd Unit:
- Stephen Morrison
- Script Supervisor
- Elaine Yarish
- Casting
- John Papsidera
- Associate:
- Wendy O'Brien
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Richard Allen
- Camera Operators
- Peter Rosenfeld
- Mark Willis
- 2nd Unit:
- David Towers
- Steadicam
- Peter Rosenfeld
- Wescam Operator
- John Trapman
- Digital Visual Effects
- Digiscope
- Special Effects
- Supervisor:
- Martin Malivoire
- Key:
- Dan Gibson
- Co-ordinator:
- Dean Stewart
- Editorial Consultant
- Steven Kemper
- Art Director
- Benno Tutter
- Set Decorator
- Cal Loucks
- Key Scenic Artist
- Rossana DeCampo
- Storyboard Artist
- Jason Shultz
- Costume Designer
- Mary Claire Hannan
- Wardrobe Mistress
- Karen Renaut
- Make-up
- Leslie Sebert
- Hair Stylist
- Carol Marinoff
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title
- Orchestra Conductor
- Pete Anthony
- Orchestrations
- Christopher Young
- Pete Anthony
- Jon Kull
- Frank Bennett
- Patrick Russ
- Music Supervisor
- Elliot Lurie
- Score Co-ordinators
- Gernot Wolfgang
- Jonathan Price
- Benedikt Brydern
- William V. Malpede
- Music Editor
- Richard Whitfield
- Music Scoring Mixer
- Robert Fernandez
- Synth Programming
- Mark Zimoski
- Synth Recording Engineer
- Larry Mah
- Soundtrack
- "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by James Steinman, performed by Bonnie Tyler; "Summer Days" by Bernie Meisinger, Charlie Gigliotti; "Condition" by Chris Kennedy, performed by Ruth Ruth; "Spook Show Baby" by/performed by Rob Zombie; "Trying Not to Think About It" by Juliana Hatfield, Todd Phillips, performed by Juliana Hatfield; "Save Yourself" by Christopher Hall, Jim Sellers, Andy Kubiszewski, Walter Flakus, Marcus Eliopulos, performed by Stabbing Westward; "I Don't Want to Wait" by/performed by Paula Cole; "The Only One" by Deirdre O'Neill, Michael Creedon, Graham Darcy, Donal McPartlin, performed by Junkster; "The End of Sugarman" from the film Coffy by Roy Ayers; "Tortured" by/performed by Annette Ducharme; "I Know God" by/performed by David Ivy; "Crop Circle" by Dave Wyndorf, performed by Monster Magnet; "Love Rollercoaster" by Ralph Middlebrooks, James L. Williams, Leroy Bonner, Marshall Jones, Clarence Satchell, Willis Beck, Marvin Pierce, performed by Ohio Players; "Zoot Suit Riot" by Steve Perry, performed by Cherry Poppin' Daddies; "Every Day" by Adam Hamilton; "Comin Back" by Ken Jordan, Scott Reiss, Trudy Reiss, performed by Crystal Method
- Production Sound Mixer
- Tom Mather
- Re-recording Mixers
- Melissa S. Hofmann
- Chris Minkler
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Per Hallberg
- Co-supervising Sound Editor
- Karen Marie Baker
- Dialogue Editors
- Lauren Stephens
- Dan Hegeman
- Sound Effects Editors
- Christopher Assells
- Dino DiMuro
- Geoffrey G. Rubay
- Bryan Bowen
- Alan Rankin
- Mark Mangino
- ADR
- Mixer:
- Ron Bedrosian
- Editors:
- Constance A. Kazmer
- Mary Ruth Smith
- Laura Graham
- Foley
- Artists:
- Jimmy Moriana
- Jeff Wilhoit
- Mixer:
- David W. Alstadter
- Editors:
- Craig S. Jaeger
- Lou Kleinman
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Matt Birman
- Animal Trainer
- Creative Animal Talent
- Film Extract
- Coffy (1972)
- Cast
- Jared Leto
- Paul
- Alicia Witt
- Natalie
- Rebecca Gayheart
- Brenda
- Joshua Jackson
- Damon
- Natasha Gregson Wagner
- Michelle Mancini
- Loretta Devine
- Reese
- Tara Reid
- Sasha
- Michael Rosenbaum
- Parker
- Danielle Harris
- Tosh
- John Neville
- Dean Adams
- Robert Englund
- Professor Wexler
- Julian Richings
- janitor
- Gord Martineau
- newsman
- Kay Hawtrey
- library attendant
- Angela Vint
- bitchy girl
- J.C. Kenny
- weather woman
- Vince Corrazza
- David Evans
- Balazs Koos
- nerdy guy
- Stephanie Mills
- Felicia
- Danny Comden
- Blake
- Nancy McAlear
- Jenny
- Shawn Mathieson
- hippie guy
- Cle Bennett
- dorky guy
- Danielle Brett
- trendy girl
- Roberta Angelica
- swimming woman
- Matt Birman
- killer
- [uncredited]
- Brad Dourif
- gas station attendant
- Certificate
- 18
- Distributor
- Columbia Tristar Films (UK)
- 8,959 feet
- 99 minutes 33 seconds
- Dolby/SDDS
- In Colour
- Super 35 [1:2.35]