Urban Legend (1998)

Calificación de los usuarios:

5.1/10   

Director:

Jamie Blanks

Guionista (WGA):

Silvio Horta (written by)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

25 septiembre 1998 (USA)

Género:

Horror | Suspenso | Misterio

Frase comercial:

It Happened To Someone Who Knows Someone You Know... You're Next.

Plot:

A college coed suspects that murders around her campus are connected to Urban Legends.

Plot Keywords:

Urban Legend | Campus | Axe | College | Gas Station

Premios:

1 nomination

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Derivative addition to the Scream cycle, with a good solution to the mystery.

Reparto

Jared Leto	...	Paul Gardener
Alicia Witt	...	Natalie Simon
Rebecca Gayheart	...	Brenda Bates
Michael Rosenbaum	...	Parker Riley
Loretta Devine	...	Reese Wilson
Joshua Jackson	...	Damon Brooks
Tara Reid	...	Sasha Thomas
John Neville	...	Dean Adams
Julian Richings	...	Weird Janitor
Robert Englund	...	Professor William Wexler
Danielle Harris	...	Tosh Guaneri
Natasha Gregson Wagner	...	Michelle Mancini
Gord Martineau	...	David McAree
Kay Hawtrey	...	Library Attendant
Angela Vint	...	Bitchy Girl

También conocida como:

Mixed Culture
Urban Legend (France)
Urban Legends (USA) (working title)
Leyenda urbana (Spain) [es]
Leyendas urbanas (Argentina) [es]

MPAA:

Rated R for horror violence/gore, language and sexual content.

Duración:

99 min

País:

USA | France

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Color

Relación de Aspecto:

2.35 : 1

Sonido:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Clasificación:

Singapore:M18 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) | Iceland:16 | South Korea:18 | Philippines:R-18 | New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Belgium:KNT | Brazil:14 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18 | USA:R

Locaciones de Filmación:

Etobicoke Olympium, Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Compañía:

Canal+ Droits Audiovisuels

Trivialidades:

The news reporter announcing the beheading of Michele Mancini on TV is named David McAree. David McAree is the first assistant director of the movie.

Errores:

Continuidad: After one character has been hit with an axe, it swings into view without a drop of blood on it.

Citas:

Natalie: Someone's taking all of these urban legends, and making them reality.

Conexiones de Película:

Referenced in The Other Final (2003)

Banda de Sonido:

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Derivative addition to the Scream cycle, with a good solution to the mystery.

Yet another film to capitalise on the hunger for cynical, humorous slasher movies with whodunnit asides in the late '90s (started by Wes Craven's Scream), Urban Legend is a fairly entertaining but wholly derivative example of the genre. The "murderer-at-large-on-a-college-campus" formula was quite popular during the original period of slasher movies in the early '80s (movies like Pieces and Happy Birthday To Me spring to mind). This update is more polished, more logical and generally more watchable.

Violent murders begin to take place a college in North America. Many of the murders are based on urban legends (popular spook-stories bandied about by word-of-mouth). First to go is a young girl driving her car through a rainswept night. An axeman leaps up from the back seat and chops her to pieces, in a terrific opening sequence which will have you checking the back seat of your car for the next month or two. From then on, it's generally a downhill ride as more and more of the college staff and students are picked off by a hooded killer. A kid goes for a pee in the woods and is hanged for his trouble; a teenged DJ is hacked apart in her studio; the college principle is run down by a car; the resident wise-ass has an unhealthy variety of toxic products poured down his throat. You get the idea, I'm sure.

Many films of this type are awful Where Urban Legend remains tolerable lies in its all-round competence. The scary moments are quite well filmed and are genuinely nerve-jangling at times. The mystery, though contrived, manages to keep you guessing as the finger of suspicion falls upon virtually every character at some point. I must admit that the killer's identity is so well disguised that it caught me out (even though I usually figure out whodunnit in films of this type). Urban Legend is no classic, nor is it particularly fresh, but it does what it does decently enough. It certainly beats the hell out of the excrutiating low-budget exploitation items from the early '80s upon which it is based.