URBAN LEGEND
US, 1998, 99 minutes, Colour.
Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayhart, Joshua Jackson, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Loretta Devine, Tara Reid, John Neville, Robert Englund.
Directed by Jamie Blanks.
Urban Legend was a successful and popular slasher film of the late 90s. It came in the wake of the fashion set by the Scream series and the I Saw What You Did Last Summer series. The basic premise is that there are stories about murders which have become urban legends. The film then becomes an illustration of these legends as individuals in a group of teenage students are despatched.
The direction is by Jamie Blanks, an Australian director who made some successful short films and was invited to Hollywood to make this film. His subsequent film was the horror thriller Valentine with Denise Richards. This film stars Jared Leto, who went on to make more successful upmarket films like Fight Club, Requiem for a Dream. Alicia Witt is his co-star and horror regulars like Brad Dourif and Freddie Kruger, Robert England also appear.
1. The film as embodying most of the traditions of the high school horror slasher movies of the '70s, '80s and '90s? The college and the campus? The serial killers? The conventions of pursuit, hiding, screaming? The ironic ending?
2. The establishing of the college and the campus? The darkness, the scares, special effects? The violence tempered at the end of the '90s in comparison with 10 to 20 years earlier? The use of irony and black humour? Stylish visuals?
3. The title and the various explanations? The sociological aspects of stories told about murders and tragedies? The development of folklore? People actually believing these urban legends or not? Urban behaviour - though many of them out in the forests or on the roads? Creepy fairy tales? The generation of fear in the listeners? The urban legends as self-fulfilling prophecies? The books, the lectures, the theories? The film as an illustrating of some of these legends?
4. Robert Englund and his background as Freddie Kruger acting the part of the professor? His course, getting people to act out the legends - and pretend and scare his class? His room, the collection of apparatus indicating his guilt? His death - and his proving that his presence was a red herring?
5. The opening, Michelle, the lonely road, the attendant at the gas station, his stammer, her fears, thinking he was a killer? The irony of the killer being in the back of the car? Her death?
6. The sequences with the students telling the stories, the disbelief, the rivalry and amplifying the stories? Taken up at the end - with Brenda listening to the story of her urban legend?
7. The establishing of the set of central characters, their interactions? Natalie as the centre of the film, the heroine? Yet, the irony that she was less to blame for the initial cause than Michelle? Paul and his work on the paper, aloof? The presentation of the campus jock and his parties? Sasha and her radio program, the explicit talk about sex, campus style? Brenda and her being the sympathetic friend? Damon and his clowning around? The range of types, stereotypes, expectations of them, their reactions and interactions?
8. The information about the deaths? Discussions with the staff? The principal, his character, interactions with the students, disbelief? His discussions Reese? His death? Reese as security guard, her watching Pam Greer's films, imagining herself this kind of black heroine? Her work with the students, searching, scares, injury - but not dying?
9. Natalie and her explanation of the truth to Brenda, the death, her sense of irresponsibility? The urban legend about the car without lights, flickering, the car turning, it causing the other car to crash?
10. Damon, clowning around, pretending to confide to Natalie, the suddenness of his death and hanging?
11. The build-up to the party, the urban legend of the babysitter in the house? Josh and the phone call, his death? Sasha, the radio station, her being pursued?
12. The relationship between Brenda and Paul? Her attachment, her wariness about Natalie and Paul's attention to her? At the party, presences and absences, suspicions on Paul, their being attacked?
13. The sinister janitor, suspicions of him? Natalie and getting the left - the lights, the urban legend and the pursuit, his death?
14. Natalie, the heroine, searching, the files? Discovering the bodies? The confrontation with Brenda, her madness, the reasons for the deaths? Paul's arrival - trying to work out whether Paul or Brenda was the killer? Paul and the rescue?
15. The happy ending - Brenda into the river and the irony of her sitting listening to discussions about her urban legend?
