SYNOPSICS
Urban Legend (1998) is a English movie. Jamie Blanks has directed this movie. Jared Leto,Alicia Witt,Rebecca Gayheart,Michael Rosenbaum are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1998. Urban Legend (1998) is considered one of the best Horror,Mystery,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
Urban Legend tells the story of a group of pretty college students at a remote New England university. The focus of the story is Natalie, a beautiful, academically-gifted student at the fictional Pendleton University. Natalie and her friends are all involved in the Folklore class being taught by Professor Wexler. Wexler regales his class with urban legends, which include Pendleton's own urban legend about a Psych professor who murdered six students at Stanley Hall 25 years ago. Natalie is the first one to suspect there's a killer on campus, especially after she has ties to all of the victims. No one, including her friends, Wexler, Dean Adams and security guard, of course, believes her until it's too late. Now she finds that she and her friends are part of the killer's ultimate urban legend.
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Urban Legend (1998) Reviews
Stylish addition to the teen-horror cycle
URBAN LEGEND Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 Sound formats: Dolby Digital / SDDS A serial killer descends on a New Hampshire college where he/she kills a number of students in the manner of various urban legends. History has a habit of repeating itself. In the early 1980's, a series of low budget 'slasher' movies emerged in the wake of HALLOWEEN (1978) and "Friday the 13th" (1980), most of which were condemned as substandard imitators by critics and horror fans alike. The same thing happened in 1996, following the success of Wes Craven's SCREAM, a smug reworking of genre clichés which allowed 'sophisticated' multiplex audiences to indulge an attitude of superiority over those 'crappy' old horror flicks and the 'unsophisticated' viewers who once supported them. The subsequent wave of teenage horror pics were flashy, sexy and ramped to the max, and - true to form - virtually all of them were (ho hum) trashed by critics and horror fans alike. And yet, most of them made a profit, perhaps BECAUSE they were flashier and sexier than those earlier pictures, and because they were designed for a wider demographic than 'mere' horror fans. Jamie Blanks' URBAN LEGEND is a case in point: Most reviews ran the gamut from harsh dismissal to faint praise, yet the movie is a visual treat, as creepy and atmospheric as any of the films which inspired it. Furthermore, Silvio Horta's unassuming screenplay confounds expectations with its solid narrative arc, recognizable characters and dynamic set-pieces, not to mention a climactic 'reveal' which offers a robust motive for the killer's devastating onslaught. There are a few embarrassing lapses along the way (such as the murder which takes place in full view of heroine Alicia Witt, which she ignores because she thinks it's a couple having sex!), and Horta can't resist a handful of cop-out contrivances (eg. the killer slashes the wrists of a girl known for her depressive tendencies, causing authorities to dismiss her death as suicide, though a routine forensic examination would have revealed the cuts were administered post mortem, AFTER she was strangled to death!), but these occasional blunders are redeemed by the movie's fast-paced editing, neo-Gothic visual scheme and clever plot developments. Blanks orchestrates proceedings with consummate skill, but he refuses to indulge the kind of transgressive gore that once distinguished this downmarket subgenre (where's Tom Savini when you really need him?!). As expected, the talented young cast - including Jared Leto, Rebecca Gayheart and Tara Reid - is pleasingly photogenic, and there are lengthy appearances by TV favorites Michael Rosenbaum ("Smallville") and Joshua Jackson (watch out for the terrific "Dawson's Creek" gag!). Major co-stars include Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger himself!), John Neville and an uncredited Brad Dourif, who features heavily in a powerful opening sequence where Blanks and Horta pull a major switcheroo on the audience (I'll say no more). Loretta Devine is amusing as the campus security guard who views herself as a modern-day Coffy/Pam Grier (her fantasy is rudely curtailed by a climactic encounter with the rampaging maniac), and there's a brief appearance by Danielle Harris, the former child star of HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS (1988) and HALLOWEEN 5 (1989), playing an adult character FAR removed from the angelic poppet of those earlier pictures! Beautiful, fairy-tale score by Christopher Young. Followed by the largely unrelated URBAN LEGENDS: FINAL CUT (2000).
i loooovvve this movie!!
omg, this movie is one of my faves... a lot of people think it is just another slasher flick, but i think the plot is really intriguing and keeps you guessing until the end. i had no idea who the killer was, and once i found out, i was totally surprised! although it is a bit scary at times, "urban legend" can also be humorous. i love the soundtrack too, and the cast is awesome. Alicia Witt was excellent as the heroine of the story, and Rebbecca gayheart gave a stunning performance as the psycho killer Brenda. she really knows how to act CRAZY (even if her motives are a little odd)!! and Jared leto is hot (i just had to add that). so if you love murder, humor, romance, and legends, "urban legend" is the movie for you. trust me, i've seen it about 500 times to date (and i first watched it last summer!). and FYI, it's on abc family for the "13 nights of Halloween" thing next month! i'll be watching it... will you??
Yet another teen slasher movie, but this one better than some
This is yet another teen slasher movie, one of the many to have come out recently. I don't think this one quite ranks up to the SCREAM movies, but I think it was better than the I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER movies. College student Natalie Simon, (Alicia Witt) mourning over the recent murder of an old friend, finds herself in great danger after a large number of students are being murdered. Each murder is performed in the style of an urban legend, which many of the kids know. Everyone is a suspect, including the best friend Brenda (Rebecca Gayheart), love interest Paul (Jared Leto) and friend/prankster Damon Brooks. (Joshua Jackson) The premise of this movie is fairly cool, but the rest of the movie is basic slasher-movie type stuff. It's pretty predictable too, as are most movies like this one. The acting is not especially great, but some of it is fair. Alicia Witt does a good job as the star of this movie. Rebecca Gayheart probably does the best acting job of all, especially at the end. Most all of the characters are boring and flat, aside from the main one. Many are simply there to get killed, and some that are more important are not as interesting. Still, this movie is better than I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and probably worth a rent.
Derivative addition to the Scream cycle, with a good solution to the mystery.
Yet another film to capitalise on the hunger for cynical, humorous slasher movies with whodunnit asides in the late '90s (started by Wes Craven's Scream), Urban Legend is a fairly entertaining but wholly derivative example of the genre. The "murderer-at-large-on-a-college-campus" formula was quite popular during the original period of slasher movies in the early '80s (movies like Pieces and Happy Birthday To Me spring to mind). This update is more polished, more logical and generally more watchable. Violent murders begin to take place a college in North America. Many of the murders are based on urban legends (popular spook-stories bandied about by word-of-mouth). First to go is a young girl driving her car through a rainswept night. An axeman leaps up from the back seat and chops her to pieces, in a terrific opening sequence which will have you checking the back seat of your car for the next month or two. From then on, it's generally a downhill ride as more and more of the college staff and students are picked off by a hooded killer. A kid goes for a pee in the woods and is hanged for his trouble; a teenged DJ is hacked apart in her studio; the college principle is run down by a car; the resident wise-ass has an unhealthy variety of toxic products poured down his throat. You get the idea, I'm sure. Many films of this type are awful Where Urban Legend remains tolerable lies in its all-round competence. The scary moments are quite well filmed and are genuinely nerve-jangling at times. The mystery, though contrived, manages to keep you guessing as the finger of suspicion falls upon virtually every character at some point. I must admit that the killer's identity is so well disguised that it caught me out (even though I usually figure out whodunnit in films of this type). Urban Legend is no classic, nor is it particularly fresh, but it does what it does decently enough. It certainly beats the hell out of the excrutiating low-budget exploitation items from the early '80s upon which it is based.
Better than I expected
I am so not into scary movies. The twists and turns of the story line were edge of the seat watchable. The ending was the best. I recommend this to intelligent movie goers. The murderer is not who you expected it be. As most thrillers, go. Why give up who the "bad guy" really is? The first true scary movie for me was Halloween when I was 13 years old. This one is no Halloween, but it was able to make me jump at the right times. We all know about those Urban Legends, but do we really believe them? Enjoy this movie, don't pick it apart.