Urban Legend (1998)

Film: Urban Legend (1998)

Stars: Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Joshua Jackson, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Loretta Devine, Tara Reid, Robert Englund

Director: Jamie Blanks

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-00's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

We are in the middle of our trio of "sexy twentysomethings doing a Scream ripoff" horror trilogy this month, and unlike The Faculty, this one was a proper success at the box office.  This period of moviemaking was huge, as horror was seeing a resurgence after much of the early 1990's was relegating it to straight-to-video releases, but we also saw stars beginning to emerge from these franchises who would become a big deal in the coming years.  While Jared Leto & Alicia Witt were the leads of this movie (and both were coming off of noted series My So-Called Life and Cybil), the names that would matter more in the coming years would be Joshua Jackson & Tara Reid.  Jackson had just completed the first season of Dawson's Creek, which for any Xennial at the time, was the most important show on television, and Reid was about to become one of the stars of the American Pie franchise, a series that would gross nearly a billion-dollars before it was over.  Both stand out here, albeit in different ways, as does honestly a cast that feels at-home with the silliness of this movie (and understanding the "let's just have fun" assignment that this movie required to work).

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie starts with a girl named Michelle getting killed by a man hiding in the backseat of her car as she speeds away from a gas station run by Oscar nominee Brad Dourif (best known to horror fans as the voice of Chucky).  We soon learn that we're at a college, and the connecting thread of all of the students thrown together is they're taking a class on urban legends taught by Professor Wexler (Englund, and yes, Freddy & Chucky are both in this movie if you go solely by the call sheet).  As the film progresses, death continues coming into contact with our protagonist Natalie (Witt), who keeps seeing her friends and acquaintances killed associated with different famous urban legends.  Natalie eventually discovers that the accidental vehicular homicide she committed years earlier has resulted in revenge, as the man she killed had a girlfriend, her best friend in the movie Brenda (Gayheart), who attempts to kill her by removing her kidney (one last urban legend), but in the process fails...or does she?  The final stinger of the movie is Brenda in a college commons area, discussing the murders, and saying "here's how the story really goes," implying she's continuing to carry on her own urban legend.

Urban Legend did not get great reviews at the time, with most critics claiming it was a Scream ripoff, and it is (Scream is much better)...but I still liked it.  The best part of it is the cast.  Rebecca Gayheart is a blast at the end of the movie.  Gayheart is one of those actresses only a very specific age group will be familiar with (her scandalous relationship with Brett Ratner and her 2001 DUI ruined her career, and she spent much of the 21st Century in semi-retirement while her now ex-husband Eric Dane had huge success on Grey's Anatomy), but she's awesome in this, totally eating up the scenery and stealing the movie away from most of her castmates.

Not that they aren't trying.  Reid, for example, is really good in this as a sex talk shock jock on the college radio station, and you spend a lot of the time hoping she'd somehow live.  She has the vibes of a less boring final girl than Witt's Natalie, who is a bit of a downer, particularly given that she's going after Jared Leto rather than Joshua Jackson.  In 1998, that might've been a closer call (not just because Jared Leto looked a lot different then, but he was generally considered to be a Manic Pixie Dream Guy after My So-Called Life), but looking back on this now, I would've let Jared Leto fall out the window, and 100% would've ended the movie twenty minutes in by sleeping with Jackson in my car rather than let him die in the woods like Natalie did.  To each their own!

1920's: The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera

1930's: The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Invisible Man, Mad Love, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Raven, Son of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London

1940's: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Cat People, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Invisible Woman, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, Phantom of the Opera, She-Wolf of London, Son of Dracula, The Uninvited, The Wolf Man

1950's: Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came from Outer Space, Revenge of the Creature

1960's: The Devil Rides Out, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead,Village of the Damned

1970's: The Amityville Horror, Black Christmas, Carrie, Dawn of the Dead, Don't Look Now, Flatliners Halloween, The Hills Have Eyes, The Omen, Phantom of the Paradise, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, When a Stranger Calls, The Wicker Man

1980's: Altered States, An American Werewolf in London, The Changeling, Child's Play, The Evil Dead, The Fly, The Fog, Friday the 13th, Gremlins, Hellraiser, The House on Sorority Row, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Pet Sematary, Poltergeist, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, Sleepaway Camp, The Thing

1990's-Present: Arachnophobia, The Blair Witch Project, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Candyman, The Faculty, Flatliners, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Interview with the Vampire, Paranormal Activity, Scary Movie, Scream