Urban Legend

Click here for IMDB's info on Urban Legend

Urban Legend

At one point I wondered if these characters knew they were in a bad movie. After all, these college-bound morons knew they were the victims of an urban legend serial killer, so they could have known that the high-concept predictable plot-line would have something to do with their demise. Not that it matters.

The flick starts with the re-creation of the dude-with-the-axe-in-the-back-seat gag, which ends with some broad's head getting chopped off. Cut to cute red-head Natalie (played with respectable umph by Cybil-alum Alicia Witt), who has enough problems with her manic depressive-goth girl roommate having S&M romps in the sack with random weirdos, but can't resist thinking that there is murderer on campus killing students in the tradition of urban legends. Uh-oh, nobody believes her. Darnit. But since we've seen Scream and every other slasher flick, we know it's one of her friends. Is it the Noxema-girl herself, Rebecca Gayheart? Could be the nice guy-reporter Jared Leto. Or it could be Dawson Creek's very own Pacey, but he gets offed early. Not him. A shame, I would have loved to see Pacey go psycho. That would have been fun. With the exception of Witt, this flick is an utter waste of celluloid. Predictable in every way, every time someone buys it, we know what's gonna happen. Director Jamie Blanks uses and rips off every technique he can to keep what little suspense there is. The script steals everything from Scream, everything from the high-concept idea to the whodunit murder mystery. Don't these idiots know that suspense is better than surprise? Still I almost liked the surprise of who the killer turned out to be, almost, but I predicted it early. Still, we get the cliche of the invincible killer. Did they just put a bullet in wacko-with-an-axe's belly and send said-nutball out a window?

Whatever. Urban Legend is a waste of time. Miss it.

--Jordan Rockwell