Urban Legend *** (1998, Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Robert Englund, Brad Dourif, Rebecca Gayheart, Loretta Devine, Joshua Jackson, John Neville, Tara Reid) – Classic Movie Review 629

A film star with rodent problems; mutant alligators living in New York’s sewers; the babysitter getting calls from a killer in the upstairs bedroom; an old lady who dries her cat in the microwave; human kidneys cut out and sold on the black market…

At a New England college, where a sinister professor (Robert Englund, A Nightmare on Elm Street’s nightmare Freddie Krueger) is teaching a course in such urban legends, somebody is acting out such tall tales and macabre myths with fatal results.

Before everyone is bumped off in turn, one of the students (Alicia Witt) sets out to uncover the killer with the help of an aggressive journalist (Jared Leto) on the school newspaper. Aussie debut director Jamie Blanks (aged 26) is largely firing blanks in this intriguing, nasty but somewhat ham-fisted 1998 entry in the Nineties new wave of in-joke horror thrillers set off by Scream.

A lack of credibility, conviction and imagination all start to take a deadly toll on the movie’s blood-stained path to its laughably absurd finale. But the idea is ingenious, there are plenty of gruesome shocks along the way and the young actors seem plenty talented enough. And it was a hit at the box office, so a sequel, Urban Legends: Final Cut, followed in 2000, without Jamie Blanks.

It also stars Brad Dourif, Rebecca Gayheart, Loretta Devine, Joshua Jackson, Michael Rosenbaum, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Danielle Harris, John Neville, and Tara Reid.

Also in the cast are Julian Richings, Gord Martineau, Kay Hawtrey, Angela Vint, J C Kenny, Vince Corazza, Stephanie Mills, Danny Comden, Nancy McAlear, Shawn Mathieson, Clé Bennett, Danielle Brett, Roberta Angelica, Matt Birman and Silvio Horta.

It is written by Jamie Blanks and Silvio Horta, shot by James Chressanthis, produced by Brad Luff, Gina Matthews, Michael McDonnell and Neal H Moritz, scored by Christopher Young and designed by Charles Breen.

© Derek Winnert Classic Film Review 629 derekwinnert.com

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