Urban Legend (Reviewed on Sept. 30/98)
Starring Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Joshua Jackson, Robert Englund
"Urban Legend" is the latest film in the newly created genre, the "teen horror/suspense movie", following "Scream", "Disturbing Behaviour", and "I Know What You Did Last Summer". I don't think the word "horror" should even be used to describe these films, though. To call them horror movies would imply that they are scary. They most decidedly are not. The contain elements that make the viewer "jump", yes, but they do not contain any images that linger with the viewer for days afterwards, as a truly scary movie will do.
The setup for "Urban Legend" is a rather intriguing one. Some lunatic is offing students at an American university in the style of famous urban legends. These are stories we've all heard, but have likely never actually happened to a real person. A premise like that would appear to be foolproof, but the director, Jamie Blanks, has disproven that theory. He creates absolutely no sense of atmosphere, and nothing in this movie gave me chills. Sure it's competently directed, but imagine what a director like David Fincher could have done with a script like this.
As for the performances, there's nothing too special here. Jared Leto has the presence of a dead chicken. Joshua Jackson steals all the scenes he is in, but he vacates the picture after the first 20 minutes. Alicia Witt never convinced me she was actually scared, even when she was being chased by a psycho with an axe. And finally, Robert Englund, "Freddy" himself, has a small part as a professor that teaches a class on (what a surprise!) urban legends. He's good, but is not given much to do.
I will say this for the movie, though. When the killer was finally revealed, it was someone I had not even considered as a suspect. That's not entirely true, however. During the 100 minute running time of the film, anyone who is more than an extra is made to be a suspect. I guess I did like that aspect of the movie; the fact that I was constantly guessing.
"Urban Legend" isn't all bad, really. It's just not scary, and that offends me since it's being marketed as a horror film. But it is entertaining all the way through, and it kept me guessing, so I'll recommend it if a better movie is sold out.
**1/2 out of ****
-- David Nusair dnusair@chat.carleton.ca Come visit my "Reel Film Reviews" site! "http://chat.carleton.ca/~dnusair"
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