Urban Legend(1998)

Directed by Jamie Blanks

Produced by Gina Matthews, Michael McDonnell & Neal H. Moritz

Starring Alicia Witt, Jared Leto, Rebecca Gayheart, Loretta Devine, Tara Reid, Joshua Jackson, Michael Rosenbaum, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Danielle Harris, John Neville, Robert Englund, Julian Richings

Love 'em or hate 'em, the modern teen-slasher seems here to stay, and I for one am happy of that fact. "Why?" I hear you all scream in abject terror, your minds jarred by that statement. Well, it's like this…the modern teen-slashers are EXACTLY the same films that I grew up on in the eighties under the "Halloween-imitator" banner with a couple of major differences. As opposed to unknowns they are cast with young faces we all know…who can act. Rather than being shot on shoestrings by relatively inexperienced directors, they are afforded modest budgets and largely established directors. And they're also usually afforded a healthy FX budget, lush cinematography, CinemaScope framing, striking digital sound, and a music library of alternative rock & teen pop. Genre fans can whine all they like about the "cash-cow" mentality behind these films, but wasn't just about every copycat that followed in Jason and Michael's footsteps a shameless grab at the box-office receipts they had generated? Hmmm, such short memories we have. Hence, come on in and share with me Jamie Blanks' long overdue horror idea…

One dark and rainy night, in the thick of a thunderstorm, pixie-featured university student Michelle Mancini (Wagner) is murdered by a madman who had cloaked himself in the shadows of the back-seat of her car. Best friend Natalie Simon (Witt) is devastated, and New Hampshire's Pendleton University is rocked by the incident. Paul Gardener (Leto), the campus journalist, wants to make the Uni paper headlines with the story, while Natalie's best friend Brenda (Gayheart) just wants to play tonsil hockey with the boy. Dean Adams (Neville) is keen for the incident to be downplayed, as the University has a "history" enough of its own. At Professor William Wexler's literature class on "urban legends" friends Natalie, Brenda, Sasha (Reid), the campus radio-queen and Damon Brooks (Jackson), the class clown, twig to the significance of the murder.

When Brooks is offed in a similar fashion, and Natalie's manic-depressive Goth room-mate Tosh (Harris) expires under remarkably familiar circumstances, it's up to the surviving students to unravel the mystery before some-one takes their love of urban folklore to diabolical ends. Could it be eternal prankster Brooks playing a sick joke? Could it be Wexler himself, the solitary survivor of Pendleton's deadly past? Or is it the creepy Janitor (Richings), who seems to know more than he lets on? And what of Natalie's own ghastly secret? Hmmm, watch and find out…

Bad news for one and all reading this from here on in, as I'm about to act half my age by stating that it's a waste of time me even trying to review this film objectively as I'm a sucker for any film that headlines Kentucky born former model Rebecca Gayheart. What can I say…but as a film fan even I succumb to a little bit of star worship every now and then. The rest of cast (Witt, Leto, Reid, Jackson & Wagner) are the usual high-gloss pretty faces that so-called 'teen-horror' has been granted in the wake of the success of Wes Craven's "Scream" but I have to ask, why complain? Dario Argento once summed the whole issue up beautifully (following the anti-violence back-lash against some of his films) when he stated that an audience identifies more with a beautiful victim, than an ugly one. It's a tactic of age old audience manipulation that will continue working ad nauseum. I liked "Urban Legend's" cast (as 'actors' are always a good thing to see in horror films) but let's face it, not everyone is going to as much as I did.

Melbourne born director Jamie Blanks takes the premise of Silvio Horta's script, which I'm surprised hadn't been utilised before, and crafts a relatively effective ensemble horror piece. In comparison to the 'teen-horror' flicks of the eighties, Blanks' film is a largely bloodless affair, but what it lacks in grue it more than makes up for with a number of elements sadly lacking from the older 'kill-flicks'. A solid mystery element (hey, I didn't pick the killer!), some above average acting, a strong sense of suspense, and a couple of jolting shock scenes, all move Blank's film a long way past the films that spawned it. Surely you all remember them? They dropped all of the above elements as 'unnecessary' in their haste to get to the next gory effects sequence. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the gore and there were some classics of the sub-genre, but there were also a phenomenal multitude of duds for every blood-stained gem. But back to Blanks' film; James Chressanthis' photography is effective without being showy, engineering a couple of unusual camera angles along the way, as well as nicely quoting Argento on a couple of occasions. Genre veteran, Christopher Young (he of that great "Hellraiser" score) lends a nicely atmospheric score that, while nothing above the usual standards of the genre, infuses a mood of menace and ups the scare factor jarringly on a couple of occasions. Fans of the "Halloween" series will additionally be surprised to see Danielle Harris all grown up here, as gothic girl Tosh, literally spilling out of her black-leather outfits (that alone should prompt a rash of rentals from some out there…).

Another Columbia disc, another solid transfer. Letterboxed at its original theatrical ratio of 2.35 and anamorphically enhanced the image is one that is extremely vivid and crystal clear. Once you've seen the 16:9 widescreen disc, you'll wonder how on earth you could contemplate looking at a P&S version ever again! It's a great picture full of deep blacks, vivid reds, and bold colours. Transfers of relatively new films are always a bitch to try and critique objectively! No film or transfer artefacts present and plenty of excellent shadow rendition (and if ever there was film that required it, then this is it). Audio is Dolby 5.1 from the SDDS theatrical mix, and presents similarly well. Nice ambience, a very natural sound stage, and some quite effective use of directional effects. Well, like I was expecting anything less than an exemplary disc from Columbia…sheesh!

Extras aren't going to knock your socks off, but that's not really an issue when the film's as good as it is. For the record, an Audio commentary by Blanks, Rosenbaum and screenwriter Silvio Horta is included. It's a reasonably entertaining listen with plenty of info and anecdotes, but is hampered slightly by occasional referral to some deleted footage that is nowhere to be found on the Region 4 disc (but by the looks of things, they aren't on the R1 disc either!). the only other supplementals present are the standard EPK Behind the Scenes featurette, that clocks up around six minutes; the Theatrical trailer, which is dopily presented fullframe but with 5.1 sound; and the obligatory Cast filmographies.

Definitely worth a rent, but it will ultimately be your feelings towards the current trend of 'teen-horrors' that steer you towards "Urban Legend", or away from it. Any genre film that can still manage to surprise me, or keep me guessing 'til the very end, after all these years is worth its weight in gold. But that's a purely personal (and is this case biased) opinion, so I'll leave this one for the fans to decide…

Review by Mike Thomason

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