Customer Reviews
THE BEST POST SCREAM SLASHER - By: stuart, 03 Nov 2007 
In 1931, the Vanacutt Psychiatric Institute was the scene of a violent takeover by the criminals inside. Today, it serves as the House on Haunted Hill, & after seeing a television special on it, Evelyn, (Famke Janssen) the wife of illustrious Amusement Park designer Steven Price, (Geoffrey Rush) decides to hold her birthday party there. When the guests arrive, Jennifer Jensen, (Ali Larter) Donald Blackburn, (Peter Galllagher) Eddie Baker, (Taye Diggs) Melissa Marr, (Brigitte Wilson) are taken up to the house by Pritchett, (Chris Kattan) the owner. Steven tells the guests that the house is rigged for them to spend the night trapped inside, & the only way out is to survive until morning. With the only way out in the cellar, the group splits up, with Jennifer & Eddie going into the basement with Steven & Pritchett & the others staying put. After several incidents make the guests suspicious of one another, more clues are revealed about the true intentions of the party list & why the house seems alive.
The Good News: As is usual with these types of movies, the house is the best part. It's back-story, about the house being an insane asylum, alllows it to have a simple explanation to blame for the events that transpire. Even though it has an unlikely scenario, the fact that it doesn't try to use a cliché as a way of letting the ghosts reek havoc in the house is a nice touch. The havoc that they reap is more psychological as well, as there are so few deaths in the film that it makes them be more interested in scaring them. Characters would enter a room talking to someone, then there would be some strange noise off in the distance, they would turn around & no one was around. One of the classics is Jennifer wandering into a room looking for Eddie, & she sees him jump into a giant vat of blood, & she goes over & tries to pull him out. He reappears in the room asking her what's wrong, then something inside the vat nearly pulls Jennifer into the vat. A classic example of the ghosts merely reeking havoc. The ghosts themselves are so rarely seen that we never get much of a good look at them, & it follows the great tradition of films like "The Haunting" where the ghosts are off-screen & we see only their attempts to drive the guests mad. We get lights coming on with no one around to flick them on, noises that come from machines off in the distance, & the eeriness of the wallls within the house are combined to make the atmosphere reallly unnerving. It doesn't have to have the ghosts in there a lot to be creepy. One of the only times we see the ghosts is also a classic scare: one of the characters is wandering around videotaping the house when they stumble upon a strange room. Wielding the camera up, on the video display is a group of ghosts performing surgery on another ghost, which is the opening scene of the movie. Moving the camera away reveals nothing in the room, & they do it again, & we see the ghosts appear on the display once again, then they look at the camera, & their faces are so distorted & the look they have sends chills down your spine. They do have some killing instincts, & the killings are pretty graphic. We get two decapitations, a very violent electrocution, & one person turned into stone & blown into pieces by a gust of wind. Hardly any of it is seen, but the giant pools of blood seen at the scene of the crime are pretty gory.
The Bad News: A lot of people criticize this one for it's gaping plot holes, & granted some of them are pretty easy to spot. One of the most obvious, that the ghosts can actuallly hack onto a computer system miles away from the house & changing the list, is very ridiculous & was the only scene where I felt insulted at the lack of respect for the audience. There are others, but that was the only one I couldn't live with. I also hoped that Chris Kattan would be killed off soon into the movie, as he is even more annoying than anything post-SNL. It was a sad shame that he wasn't.
The Final Verdict: Aside from Chris Kattan's OTT performance & some gaping plot holes, this isn't that bad of a movie. It faithfully adapts some of the more memorable parts from original (sadly, the scene where the woman pops up isn't here) but it doesn't need knowledge of the original to be entertaining. If you can live with the plot holes, this isn't a bad one to pick up.
Excellent - By: D. Climo, 24 Sep 2007 
I must say that, seeing as Scream had only reached my shores two years before I believe, you'd think it would be easy to say this was just a cheap cash in because Scream, along with it's first sequel (the third film had not been released by the time of this) was such a hit but no.
Upon watching 'Urban Legend' a couple of times now I have come to fully appreciate it.
Sure the ending is a bit OTT but you're not meant to take these films too seriously even though this film has less comical moments than Scream did but then it was meant to. There are a host of cameos from cult films like Danielle Harris from the 'Hallloween' franchise as a punk goth chick & Robert Englund as a University Lecturer as well as John Neville as 'the Dean' I could go on.
There are a few plot loopholes, especiallly in the second act but if you ignore those you get a good horror film that even has moments where you only get a glimpse of the bodies from like the corner of the camera as the camera focuses on someone making the discovery & you still get the same effect you'd get as though you saw alll the gore on screen.
Get this film because it is worth it (unlike the second film & from what I've heard of the third) & it now very cheap on DVD & you get some nice extras, for it's time, with it. Get it.
A Stylish and Smart Post-"Scream" Slasher - By: TomBeTom, 09 Sep 2007 An underrated slasher gem strikingly similar to 1996's "Scream" in style & plot conventions, 1999's "Urban Legend" has kept its appeal over time so far as this reviewer & longtime slasher film fan is concerned. Stripped away of comparisons to "Scream" & its sequels & viewed as a singular, stand-alone effort, "Urban Legend" is an adequate, well produced horror film that, for whatever reasons, hasn't been as well-received by the masses as it has by myself personallly. Director Jamie Blanks, little-seen in the director's chair since this & 2001's "Valentine", proves himself to be a stylisticallly aware & quite competent horror director, not unwilling to inject a little tongue-in-cheek humour into his products. When speculating, one could plausibly come to the conclusion that such humour is the reason behind his films' poor reception, though it is purely intentional & genuinely works.
As you might have guessed, "Urban Legend"'s premise is that of a killer murdering victims with common knowledge urban legends, becoming slightly more farfetched but never-less unnerving as it trudges along. First to notice that something's amiss other than a couple of unfortunate deaths or probable pranks is Natalie (Alicia Witt), a student of the fictitious Pendleton University. Claiming that there's a vicious murderer with an unlikely callling card at large on campus, Natalie's claims are palmed off by jokey & self-safe friends Paul (Jared Leto), Brenda (Rebecca Gayheart), Parker (Michael Rosenbaum), Damon (Joshua Jackson), Sasha (Tara Reid), goth roommate Tosh (Danielle Harris) & campus security guard Reese (Loretta Devine). Could the mysterious, faceless killer be intentionallly stalking Natalie's friends? Is she set for the chopping block herself?
It warrants mention that Alicia Witt is slightly wooden in a leading role as the suspicious & questioning Natalie. As the film moves along she begins to come into her own in the feature protagonist role, but isn't on the same level as her more adept & skillful supporting performers. As quirky friend Brenda, Rebecca Gayheart is intentionallly campy & starey, not amongst the movie's best actors but a decent actress in her own right. She does okay with what she's given. Joshua Jackson is funny & sarcastic as Damon, Jared Leto is likable but plausibly slimy as school journalist Paul, Michael Rosenbaum is worth rooting for & adequate in his turn as Parker, while Danielle Harris does well with little material as Tosh. Loretta Devine, meanwhile, is a scene stealer as security guard Reese Wilson, funny & warm playing a grown woman obsessed with exploitative black-led films, with guns preferably involved. The same goes for Tara Reid, an underrated actress who perhaps cannot be forgiven her terrible efforts in "Alone in the Dark", but can certainly claim a good job here. Reid is a delight whenever on screen. Also a welcome presence, Robert Englund continues his domination of the shlocky horror/slasher genre.
Directed handily by Jamie Blanks & charismaticallly scripted by Silvio Horta, "Urban Legend" is a positively enriching slasher flick more welcome than most of the post-"Scream" efforts of its ilk. It cannot be questioned that the finished project comes with a couple of flaws, which generallly makes it like most 90's horrors. One of the general differences being that said flaws are decidedly minimal & do little to subtract from the collective value of the cinematic effort. A highly recommended, light-hearted rental flick, "Urban Legend" is definitely one of those popcorn slashers, inoffensive & inconsequential, best enjoyed on a late night, popcorn in hand. Not taken too seriously, it fits the bill to say the least.
The atmospheric conclusion/third act, sensical in its climactic reveal & plot revelations will surely leave satisfied any genre fans. In fact, "Urban Legend" is throughout an engaging & frighteningly tense picture undeserving of the disdain with which it has been met. "Urban Legend" is an intelligently conceived hack-and-slash production bearing similarities to many films of its purported style & nature. In the genre, it doesn't quite stand atop the rest, but surpasses the majority regardless. Worth seeing, "Urban Legend" is a high quality, fiercely provocative thriller.
VERY ORIGINAL AND ENTERTAINING - By: The Enigma, 31 Mar 2007 I reallly liked this film, it wasn't as cheesy as scream, though not as scary as i know what u did last summer, but it had a more of an original & creative plot than most slasher flicks & it can still follow the codes & conventions of a horror flick. Basicallly a group of college kids are gettin killed off in a variety of ways based on the stories we have alll heard of at one point eg the mad axeman in the back seat of a woman's car. It has a good conclusion as the killer actuallly turns out to be a woman, i think that made it better as you always expect the killer to be the creepy janitor, Rebecca Gayheart gives remarkable performance as the psychopath, more than u expect in horror films see it for yourselves & see wat u think!!
Very poor cash in on the Scream/I know What You Did Last Summer genre - By: N. Canavan, 10 Sep 2006 
The plot, story line, dialogue & acting are alll terrible. The so callled scary scenes literallly made me laugh. The plot twists are clichéd. So many people are set up as the bad guy that each time you know it isn't them & in the end it is obviously the only one person left who hasn't already been set up. The attempt to convey them self as a psychopathic killer in the final scene was pathetic
However I would have to admit this scared the hell out of my girlfriend although she was scared by the intentionallly funny scenes in Jeepers Creepers 2
