by Erik Carollo

Jan 25, 2000

Urban Legend is the latest of the Scream clones and while not nearly as smart and entertaining, this one isnt that bad. The good premise centers around a killer who is reinacting murders according to various urban legends.The movie itself was reminicent of last years:I Know What You Did Last Summer but it also follows the Scream tradition of characters who know when something is coming,(in this case,the urban legends)The movie features(pardon for me not knowing their names)the kid from Dawson's Creek,the guy from My So Called Life,Rebecca Gayheart,etc the cast does a good job as far as horror movies go.There are some great scenes in this film and the whole premise makes it very watchable and entertaining, but all in all it's just another teen slasher flick.

**1/2 out of **** Rater R-for language and horror movie gore

PS I will be seeing all of the teen slasher flicks and keep u updated on all of them.

 

by Peter Woods

Jan 25, 2000

This movie stinks. Okay there some scary parts in the movie. But not scary enough. And is it kind a old putting teenagers from Hit T.V. shows in a horror movie? Did we saw that in "I know what you did last summer" and "Scream"

Really bad acting and a bad script. Make this movie not really enjoyable. But funny to watch on the silver screen cause the plot not well written. Some people get mad at me because for hating this film. If you like that lame horror movie "I Know What You Did Last Summer" You probably will liked this movie.Overwise wait for it on video and you can rent it at your locel video store.

Rating:** out of *****

 

by Katie Bogue

Jan 25, 2000

Oh my God, this movie is so good! It's as good as Scream and better then I Know What You Did Last Summer. If you ever read that book "Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark", you will like this movie because it shows many of the stories. Most people have heard the one about the woman who's driving and has a murderer hiding in the back seat, and its fun to see it portrayed in a movie.

The stories in Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark are called "urban legands", and this movie's about how someone actually starts performing them. Now, during these scenes, even tho I knew what was going to happen, it was STILL scary. Like in Scream, you will have a hard time finding out who the killer is.

This is a really scary movie. When I saw it, everyone kept screaming during the scary parts (like when the killer jumps out from behind a doorway). I saw it with some of my friends and we all liked it. You should see it tonight!

 

by Rick Gagliano

Jan 25, 2000

First of all....I really liked it. Sure this film is just one more in the many fright flicks being produced today, but this one is based upon a very cool premise....Urban Legends. Whether you know it or not, you have all heard an urban legend, but you may have thought it to be real. Urban legends include the guy hiding in the backseat of a car ready to kill the driver, but a gas station attendant tries to alert the woman driver, but fails; the couple that parks and they boyfriend leaves the car for a moment only to be found later swinging from a tree limb above the car; that combining pop rocks and soda can cause you stomach to burst; or if you wake up in a tub of ice, you know your kidneys have been removed...those are all urban legends. This film takes a look at those and more but does it in a very creative way...a serial killer who bases the kills on urban legends. Has the director been successful at bringing these stories to life? Definitely yes. I found myself screaming out loud numerous times, but yet there are some comical overtones in the film also. The setting is a college campus that has a boarded up old building that is closed because of a terrible incident that took place there many years ago...no...it's not the "C" building. For more information on urban legends, check out he following web site: http://www.snopes.com/ Bottom line: if you fear ending up in a tub of ice, then check out this film for an even better chilling time.

 

by Avery

Jan 25, 2000

Wonderfully put together. The story-line moved along very quickly leaving you clue after deceitful clue as to who the real killer was...or wasn't. I want to commend the writers for an excellent job it really held the audience attention and scaring the hell out of them clear to the last moments of the film. Definately a must see...again.

 

by Ann Daley

Jan 25, 2000

A predictable, campy, teen date movie. If you liked "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer", You'll probably like this. Not worth the price of admission to see it in the theater, though.

 

by Shaun

Jan 25, 2000

What hath Kevin Williamson wrought? While the horror movie revival spurred on by his _Scream_ has yielded a few decent entries in the genre--_I_Know_What_You_Did_Last_Summer_, _Halloween:_H20_, and _Scream_2_ --it must be noted that Williamson himself had a hand in the writing of those films. Those Williamson-less post-_Scream_ efforts, among them _Wishmaster_ and the recent _Disturbing_Behavior_, have been frightening all right--frighteningly, insultingly _bad_. Add to that list _Urban_Legend_, which takes a promising premise and runs it through a predictable meat grinder of idiocy.

The influence of Williamson on screenwriter Silvio Horta is clear in two key areas. First, the opening sequence, like that of _Scream_, is an extended set piece detailing the singular murder that gets the proverbial ball rolling. This sequence, in which Pendleton College coed Michelle Mancini (Natasha Gregson Wagner) is decapitated while driving, also reveals the other obviously Williamson-esque touch: the killer's look. Dressed in a large hooded parka, wielding an axe, the killer bears more than a passing resemblance to the _I_Know..._fisherman, sans the hook.

One thing Horta does not borrow from Williamson, however, is the intriguing premise. Students at Pendleton are being killed by way of urban legends--those contemporary bits of "mythology" passed from person to person, group to group, year to year that become so embedded in the social consciousness. It hardly matters if they are true or not, such as the tall tale that Mikey from the Life cereal commercials died from a fatal combination of Pop Rocks and Pepsi (he didn't). Michelle, slain by the "killer lurking in the backseat" of lore, is but the first to fall prey to an urban legend come true; as the body count rises, fellow Pendleton student Natalie (Alicia Witt) suspects not only a link between the murders, but a personal link to her past as well.

The setup shows promise, but the story never takes off, due in large part to Horta and the director, the aptly named Jamie Blanks, who fires round afer round of his namesake in terms of suspense and scares. Too many of the would-be shocks are fakeouts reliant on bombastic music cues, and the film's chase scenes are riddled with the cliches that _Scream_ tried to subvert, like screaming damsels knowingly running themselves into dead ends when they should--and could--run out the front door. But that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cliches; there's also the climactic villain confession, in which a contrived and way-too-convenient motive is revealed, not to mention the credit card opening up the locked door trick, which is a cliche in any film genre. Banks and Horta's (intentional) attempts at humor are also lame; the fact that the best gags are lazy, in-jokey references to the other credits of co-stars Joshua Jackson and Rebecca Gayheart says a lot about the imagination of their humor. Some laughs are also had when the rather predictable identity of the killer is revealed, but I'm not so sure if some of the more hilarious things about it were meant to be so.

The filmmakers don't get much help from their onscreen talent. I was far from a fan of bland _I_Know..._ starlet Jennifer Love Hewitt, but I'd take her any day over the dreadfully stiff and uncharismatic Witt, whose inept attempts at emoting were often met with laughter; Witt has a pefect foil in her equally pesence-challenged leading man, Jared Leto. _Dawson's_Creek_ star Jackson mugs his way through a glorified cameo; Gayheart displays all the depth and range of, well, a Noxzema spokeswoman; and Robert Englund lends the film little more than his Freddy Krueger pedigree as a folklore professor. Granted, the cast is hampered by their material. Loretta Devine, who has done some fine work in films such as _Waiting_to_Exhale_, is saddled with the ridiculous role of a Pam Grier-worshiping campus security guard.

The recently resuscitated horror genre cannot rely on the efforts one man--namely, Kevin Williamson--to stay alive. If other filmmakers continue to make such shoddy product as _Urban_Legend_, the genre looks to once again go the way of screen slashers' many victims.

GRADE: D

 

by Maggie

Jan 25, 2000

This is a very good movie and you must see it in a theater to get the full effect! Josh Jackson is the best!

 

by Eric

Jan 25, 2000

Like everyone's been saying, this is just another "teen-thriller" with the "who done it?" and the gore. There were suprisingly a heck of a lot more killings in this flick too, I mean, like more than "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" combined. I thought that got a little carried away. There are a few moments that make you jump, and it does a good job of keeping you guessing at who did it. But the acting was not the greatest, to put it in a nice way. So if you're looking for a movie to see in the theatres, keep looking, there's defintely got to be something better.

 

by Sebastián Ciliurczuk

Jan 25, 2000

Its a medium good film but for me is similar a the film " I know what you did the last summer" is an unoriginal film but the film have very good and pretty actrees. bye, seba.

 

by Sabine

Jan 25, 2000

This is the only movie in my life that I have walked out of, it was a waste of $16 for two tickets. The best part of the movie were the previews

 

by George Jobson

May 24, 2003

Another dull horror film inwhich students were dying over a series of urban legends. Just another bad horror movie, despite the presence of Alicia Witt.