The success of 1996’sScreamreinvigorated the horror genre after it was seemingly on life support in the 90s. Much like the slasher films that were cranked out following the release of 1978’sHalloweenandFriday The 13thin 1980, the 90s saw its own horror movie renaissance onceScreammade the genre viable again.I Know What You Did Last Summer,Scream 2,Disturbing Behavior, andHalloween: H20followed, but none seemed more in line withScreamthanUrban Legend.
Similar to the Wes Craven hit,Urban Legendhad a unique narrative hook to go along with a good-looking ensemble cast stalked by an unknown assailant. Released 25 years ago,Urban Legendwas deemed by most critics to be a rip-off ofScreamin many ways, but in the years since its initial release,Urban Legendhas stood out for its own campy charms that have endured it as a cult classic.
The hook inScreamwas that “someone has taken their love of scary movies, one step too far.” The characters were self-aware and knew all the horror genre troupes that they were experiencing.Urban Legendhas its own hook, and while it’s not as meta as what audiences got withScream, it’s still an attention grabber for viewers.
The story focuses on a series of murders on campus at a private New England university that all appear to be modeled after popular urban legends. Much like the killer making you call back to horror classics inScream,Urban Legendmade the audience remember all the spooky tales and folklore that they may have heard from a friend of a friend or family member, usually with horrifying and cautionary results. The killer inUrban Legendis bringing some of these stories to life, and a cast thatconsists of Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Tara Reid, Rebecca Gayheart, Michael Rosenbaum, and Joshua Jackson, to name a few, have to figure out how to stay alive.
Urban Legend Has Fun Recreating Popular Urban Legends
Silvio Horta’s script forUrban Legendmight lack the wit ofKevin Williamson’s screenplayforScream, but it does provide the film with the blueprint for some fantastic set pieces. The urban legends featured in the movie are expertly crafted, and they work in large part because director Jamie Blanks takes what Horta wrote on the page and gives the audience an accurate depiction of the legends they have previously only read about.
The film’s opening scene sets the tone as a young woman (Natasha Gregson Wagner) is driving on a dark and stormy night and runs out of gas. She pulls over at a gas station and is greeted by a creepy attendant,played by Brad Dourif, in just one of the film’s cameos that should be a joy for horror fans.
He has a bad stutter as he lets her know her credit card isn’t working and that she has to come inside to talk to the credit card company. She’s reluctant but goes inside only to find a dial tone on the other line and a man who appears to want to attack her. The young woman escapes from the attendant after a struggle, and we only learn after she speeds off that he is trying to help her because “SOMEONE’S IN THE BACKSEAT!”
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As “Total Eclipse of the Heart” plays over the scene with lyrics that exclaim for her to “turn around,” a killer creeps up in the young woman’s backseat, and she is ultimately axed. The “killer in the backseat” urban legend goes back as far as 1968 with several variations. The scene works because the viewer has at least a passing knowledge of the story, and now it has a chilling visual to go along with it.
The film showcases many more urban legends, with some played for fun, like the one in a folklore class run by a professorplayed by Robert Englund, in yet another fun horror movie cameo. While in class, Professor Wexler (Englund) wants to disprove that eating Pop Rocks and drinking soda at the same time makes your insides burst. Damon (Joshua Jackson) demonstrates it and fakes getting sick to get a laugh from the class.
Later, this legend is turned on its head when the killer re-enacts it on Parker (Michael Rosenbaum) by substituting soda with cleaning chemicals, which, as you can guess, results in his death. Other legends, such as “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the light?” and the boyfriend hanging from a tree while a girl waits in a car below, are also displayed in wickedly clever detail.
Urban Legend’sbiggest asset proves to be Rebecca Gayheart as Brenda. She has spent the majority of the film seemingly playing the role of best friend to Alicia Witt’s Natalie, but as the film draws to its conclusion, we learn that she has been the one committing all the murders. She has a motive explained during a signature monologue that has become a staple of these movies by this point, but none of that really matters.
In the spirit of Pamela Voorhees fromFriday The 13th,Urban Legendgave us a solo female killer when many horror films tend to reveal a man behind the crimes all along. Sure,Scream 2gave us Mrs. Loomis (Laurie Metcalf), but she wasn’t working alone and had Mickey (Timothy Olyphant) to help her. Brenda orchestrated this elaborate scheme all on her own. When you view the film again, knowing it was Brenda all along, you can tell that she has been gaslighting Natalie during several scenes where it appears she’s acting as her friend.
Rebecca Gayheart’s Campy Portrayal of the Killer Has Made Urban Legend a Fan-Favorite
This is why Gayheart’s performance has become a fan favorite of horror fans over the years. She’s wonderfully over the top and embraces the full camp of her killer reveal. It would be easy for her to merely play it as pure psycho, but she brings layers to her performance. Having Brenda revealed to be the killer only works if you pay attention to all the nuances of Gayheart’s performance before it becomes known to the audience.
By the time thefilm reaches its climax, Brenda has become completely unhinged, and Gayheart has earned every moment to get there. Because she’s in on the camp of it all, it makes the performance all the more fun and a true highlight of the movie.
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Even though the film plays most of its strokes as a standard slasher film, the movie takes a witty approach with its ending. After the main story wraps, we see a college student seemingly finishing telling the story as if it were an actual urban legend. Most listeners disbelieve the tale, except for one young woman who is later revealed to be Brenda.
She tells everyone that the story was told incorrectly and begins to explain “how the story really goes” as the film cuts to its credits. It’s a smart conclusion that makes the audience question everything they just saw. Like an urban legend, the story could’ve changed over time as it was passed on from person to person. Was what we just saw true? You never really know, which gives the film an added layer of mystery.
Urban Legendwas a hit upon release,grossing $72.5 million worldwideon a $14 million budget, but critics were unimpressed. Rotten Tomatoes, which registers the film at a very rotten 25 percent, has a consensus that reads, “Elements ofScreamreappear in a vastly inferior vehicle.”
It was clear that critics deemed it a mere clone or imitation ofScream, but it seems like they missed the point.Urban Legendnever tries to be a meta-inspired clever exercise in horror. The film plays more like an homage to the slasher films of the 80s that happen to have a shiny and new late 90s aesthetic. The movie was never meant to reinvent the wheel, and that’s why it works. For horror fans,Urban Legendis a fun callback to the movies that inspired it.
