Urban Legend (1998)

Typical, cliched, average horror flick - so why watch it?
If you enjoy the typical slasher flick that involves a group of teens dying off one by one by an unknown killer, than that is about the only reason to watch this. The only thing that kept me watching was my curiosity of discovering who the killer was, and I will admit, it did actually keep me guessing. When the answer was revealed, I was both surprised and dissapointed, dissapointed how ridiculous the film ends, a little over-the-top with the killer managing to stay alive after getting shot and falling several stories down onto the pavement below.

The film follows a group of college students, mix of males and females, as they all get killed one by one on campus by a cloaked killer, using the "Urban Legends" approach to all the murders. The professor played by Robert Englund (Freddy Kreuger, Nightmare on Elm Street) is easily suspected, because of his fascination with such events. But as a typical horror flick goes, the college students are very B-list actors, with cliched horror film behaviors and personalities.

The fright/scare factor of Urban Legend was rather mild, however, I found the opening scene with Brad Dourif at the gas station to be the best scene of the film with its bit of a clever twist. Unfortunately it all goes downhill from there, and scary moments are either predictable or uninteresting. As for blood and gore, things are very minimal compared to most horror flicks made today.

Urban Legend is very average. Its not very scary, and isn't very interesting or unpredictable. At least the killer was unexpected, but once you discover who it is there isn't much going for this film for a re-watch anytime too soon. One can only imagine how this spawned two more sequals.

Acting - 2.5
Characters - 2.5
Horror - 3
Story - 3
Overall - 3

1.75 STARS: A decent "whodunnit" slasher, but the ending is lame.
"Urban Legend" is similar to the movie "Scream". Both movies are pretty good "whodunnit" slashers that contain classic slasher movie twists. "Urban Legend" is about a group of students at a college where a terrible murder took place about twenty-five years ago. Our brilliant little students start getting killed off one by one by a killer using every slasher cliche imaginable, thus the name "Urban Legend". There are plenty of "red herrings" to go around in this flick to keep the audience guessing, and everything goes fairly well until the unrealistic conclusion where everything is supposedly revealed.

Indeed, like "Scream", the problem with "Urban Legend" is the ridiculous ending when the killer is actually revealed, although I did find "Scream" to be better simply because it was more intricate and had better acting, but that's not saying much. When the killer is revealed and the ending begins to take form, the movie comes off rather ridiculous and lacking in credibility. As with "Scream", the ending of "Urban Legend" brings this movie down quite a few notches, not that it was that good to begin with. Acting, directing and production values are decent for this type of flick. "Urban Legend" does have some entertainment value for its typical slasher format and mystery killer, but it's not a good horror movie. However, if you like modern slashers, it might be worth a rent.

1.75 STARS: A decent "whodunnit" slasher, but the ending is lame.
"Urban Legend" is similar to the movie "Scream". Both movies are pretty good "whodunnit" slashers that contain classic slasher movie twists. "Urban Legend" is about a group of students at a college where a terrible murder took place about twenty-five years ago. Our brilliant little students start getting killed off one by one by a killer using every slasher cliche imaginable, thus the name "Urban Legend". There are plenty of "red herrings" to go around in this flick to keep the audience guessing, and everything goes fairly well until the unrealistic conclusion where everything is supposedly revealed.

Indeed, like "Scream", the problem with "Urban Legend" is the ridiculous ending when the killer is actually revealed, although I did find "Scream" to be better simply because it was more intricate and had better acting, but that's not saying much. When the killer is revealed and the ending begins to take form, the movie comes off rather ridiculous and lacking in credibility. As with "Scream", the ending of "Urban Legend" brings this movie down quite a few notches, not that it was that good to begin with. Acting, directing and production values are decent for this type of flick. "Urban Legend" does have some entertainment value for its typical slasher format and mystery killer, but it's not a good horror movie. However, if you like modern slashers, it might be worth a rent.