Runtime: 100 minutes
Directed by: Jamie Blanks
Starring: Alicia Witt, Jared Leto, Rebecca Gayheart, Michael Rosenbaum, Loretta Devine
From: Tristar
Yes, I remembered this starred Jared Leto. That goes against the meme of his filmography holding many surprises yet for a long time his presence here was unknown to me; Urban Legend may have only been seen by me twice in total, both on VHS. It was by happenstance that this was chosen, close to its 25th (!) anniversary. What little I recalled was that this unabashedly ripped off Scream... which was in fact the case. Then again, Kevin Williamson even started ripping himself off; that's how horror was in the late 90's.
The novelty is getting to see and hear about various urban legends, which of course are in general nothing more than lore, but are still fun to hear about. Some won't like that one of those re-created was “the dog in the microwave” tale; you've been warned. At a bucolic New England college-actually filmed in Ontario-young adults start dying in rather creative ways, although this doesn't have much gore. The deaths seem to be connected to Alicia Witt, but why?
The movie is silly nonsense you don't want to scrutinize too hard. Yet, I still had fun with this crap. There are many familiar faces-besides the names already mentioned, Joshua Jackson, Rebecca Gayheart, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Tara Reid, Robert Englund, and even another “scary actor” who wasn't listed in the opening credits so their name won't be dropped here-the late 90's moments that made me chuckle as those were my teen years, some genuine laughs, and how one performer really camped it up at a key moment and continued that act the rest of the way.
The film can be picked apart if you so desire and at least a few will notice that all the main male college students are various degrees of trashy/sleazy; overall, this was a nice blast from the past I was happy to check out again after literal decades.
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