Lilly Andrews, Special to The Denisonian–
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for Urban Legend (1998).
There are few media genres I enjoy more than horror. To me, the only way that a horror movie can be better is by absolutely failing in terms of plot, character development, and realism. In other words, I love how terrible they can be.
It’s been over a year since I first watched Urban Legend. I was prompted to rewatch based on the vague autumnal and collegiate atmosphere I could remember from it. There were several things I didn’t remember, though, such as: journalist Jared Leto (pre-Thirty Seconds To Mars), professor Robert Englund (of A Nightmare on Elm Street fame), and the ever-shifting plot.
Urban Legend follows a group of students at Pendleton University—namely Natalie, who suspects that a serial killer inspired by urban legends is murdering their classmates.
One by one, friends are killed in seemingly more and more absurd ways, all aligning with classic urban legends. Some examples include a murderer in the backseat, a kidney heist, and “the call is coming from inside the house” myth.
Admittedly, the film’s plot is somewhat of a mess. It attempts to introduce multiple red herrings almost constantly, and it insists on misleading the viewer. First, it attempts to blame the “creepy janitor,” who actually does nothing but help the main characters. Then, it pins Englund’s character, Professor Wexler, as the big suspect. After going through almost every other character, we finally land on the true killer—Natalie’s friend, Brenda.
My biggest gripe is with this twist ending. I need to exercise a lot of suspension of disbelief to understand Brenda’s motive. She goes on a murdering spree because Natalie and the girl who was first killed—Michelle—ran her boyfriend off the road in their own recreation of an urban legend. At first, the story seems solid; however, it completely falls apart when dissected.
Though Natalie and Michelle were both involved in the original murder, Michelle was the driver of the car (and, therefore, more guilty). For some reason, Brenda killed her first and saved Natalie for last in an attempt to build suspense. This doesn’t make much sense, though, since Natalie was just a passenger; presumably, the writers didn’t want to make her too unlikable and instead made her complacent in the murder. But Brenda’s killer monologue doesn’t work the same way without the inherent guilt of Natalie.
The multiple fake-out endings and killer resurrections only exacerbate the film’s issues. I really had a hard time believing that Brenda would 1) get shot and fall out of a multi-story building, 2) get launched out of a car windshield and fall into a lake, and 3) live to tell the tale. Additionally, the ambiguous ending implying further killings makes no sense; Brenda no longer has a motive. But I haven’t seen Urban Legends: Final Cut, so who knows.
This time around, my friends and I decided to watch Urban Legend on Xumo Play, a free, relatively primitive streaming service that paused the movie every 5 minutes for an ad break. This feature may have slightly hindered my opinion of the movie as a whole, which felt about 20 minutes too long.
In short, Urban Legend feels like all the satirized aspects of Scream, except it’s not a satire. Though it has some beautiful, nearly gothic visuals, the film lacks general cohesion. But if you’re looking for a good laugh, I’d recommend it.
Lilly Andrews ‘29 is an English creative writing major from Youngstown.