Jamie Blank died recently. He was in his mid-20s when he helmed Urban Legend during the slasher craze resurgence of the late 1990s.
I’ll admit I had no idea what an urban legend meant when I saw the movie posters. Yet I had heard a lot of them. There was Bloody Mary, huge alligators in the sewers, the hook on the car door handle, the babysitter being terrorized by a caller that’s actually upstairs and of course the Mexican chihuahua that’s actually a rabid street rat.
There was also the rumors that Josh Saviano had taken a second career as Marolyn Manson after The Wonder Years ended and the death of Mark-Paul Gosselaar after Saved by the Bell.
Neither are true. Rob Stone of Mr. Belvedere fame was also rumored to be Manson.
I theorize Gosselaar was a mistake as AIDS activist Elizabeth Glaser had died in late 1994. She was married to Paul Michael Glaser who played David Starsky in Starsky & Hutch. He had turned to directing. The names might sound familiar between Glaser and Gosselaar. Hardly anyone was using the Internet at the time so they hear a name or read it in a magazine and make a mistake.
Most urban legends are like campfire tales or stories told at sleepovers. They are mostly targeting incompetent women or POC viewed as dangerous. Other times it has been youth or general people with little experience. I remember reading one about young parents who leave their baby in the high chair as they go on a trip. The babysitter is running late and rather than wait for them, they leave the back door open so they won’t miss their flight. But a gust of wind blows the door closed locking it.
When the babysitter shows up a few minutes later, she thinks no one is home and just assumes they took the baby.
A week later, the parents come home to find the baby dead to neglect.
Now obviously, a lot of parents wouldn’t put a trip over their baby’s life even though there are rotten parents.
Some have a basis in reality such as the Kitty Genovese murder and cyanide poisoning in Halloween candy. But even those true-crime stories have been grossly exaggerated.
Urban Legend is a basic slasher of a killer stalking college students and killing them inspired by these stories.
The movie opens with a young woman, Michelle Mancini (Natasha Gregson Wagner) behind killed by a person in the back of her SUV. Brad Dourif had a nice cameo as a gas station attendant who tries to warn her. Michelle was a student at the fictional Pendleton University where Natalie (Alicia Witt) is also a student. They went to high school together but lost contact.
A journalism student, Paul (Jared Leto back when he was likable and not so full of himself) suspects a killer is on the loose as the 25th anniversary of a massacre on campus. However the school has covered it up so people consider it just another urban legend. As the bodies pile up again, the administration led by Dean Adams (John Neville) refuses to believe there’s cause for concern.
The movie is notable for its cast which also includes Rebecca Gayheart, Tara Reid, Danielle Harris, Joshua Jackson and Michael Rosenbaum, most of which have gone on to bigger roles. Robert Englund has a nice role as a professor who has a questionable history.
It lacks the true touch that Wes Craven brought to the Scream movies but Blanks was reportedly a horror buff and had impressed producers with his student movie Silent Number. Incidentally, the sequel Urban Legend: Final Cut involves student filmmakers. Yet it’s not as good. Blanks did Valentine as a follow-up but by then, the craze had fallen out no thanks to the backlash following the Columbine High School Massacre. In 2005, Urban Legends: Bloody Mary went straight to video had more of a supernatural element.
Blanks had reportedly been suffering from health issues for years when he passed away on March 16.
Zane Says 