Table of Contents
Last night for Creeptober we watched Scream. Tonight we watch a movie that is often called a Scream “rip-off” or “clone,” Urban Legend. Are the accusations of blatant copying fair? That’s what was on my mind as I watched Urban Legend for the first time in a very long time.
Reacting to Urban Legend
There’s no denying that there are similarities between Urban Legend and Scream. It’s also apparent that Urban Legend exists because Scream was so successful. But to call Urban Legend a rip-off or clone feels like an exaggeration. Was it trying to cash in on the trend kicked off by Scream? Absolutely. But I don’t fault movies for doing that. Many great slashers were created in the wake of Halloween (1978), and a sizable portion of those felt very similar. That’s just how genre films tend to work. Something gets popular, then a bunch of movies try to recreate the formula with slight variations. Urban Legend is a slight variation, and it’s pretty fun.
I’ll be honest though. When Urban Legend first came out, I didn’t really give it a chance. It wasn’t until later when I started revisiting many of the late 1990s and early 2000s horror movies I’d overlooked that I watched it for the first time. It’s cheesy, most of the characters are a bit flat, and the killer (while hiding their face) isn’t terribly exciting, but I enjoy this movie.
I like it mostly because of the gimmick. I love a good and gimmicky slasher movie, and the idea of killing people based on urban legends provides tons of fun ways the story can go. I mean, entire movies have been inspired by one urban legend, so making a movie about as many urban legends as you can cram into about 100 minutes sounds like a blast. Urban Legend might fall short of being a blast, but it is good fun.
For me, Urban Legend is all about the cheese. The parts of the movie that probably make people roll their eyes are the parts I enjoy the most. I don’t really care too much about any of the characters. I don’t think the whodunit part of the story is particularly compelling. But I really like the obvious attempts at adding intrigue. Like when we see that at least two people who aren’t the killer have the exact same coat. And the corny flashbacks during Natalie’s big confession about her past. And the Dean being adamant about ignoring obvious danger to the point of being ridiculous. What can I say? Sometimes I’m a sucker for cheese when it feels like it’s done in a non-ironic way.
However, what really sells this movie for me is Rebecca Gayheart. Spoiler, but her performance after she’s revealed as the killer is awesome. Her wide-eyed, big-haired approach to the “I’m crazy, actually” killer reveal feels absolutely perfect in Urban Legend. In some other movies I might scoff at a performance like this, but here it turns my whole opinion on the killer’s mystique around, and it elevates the entire movie. Like I said, I’m all for cheesiness when it’s done right.
I also do enjoy a few of the kills in Urban Legend. My favorite is probably Tosh’s for just how creepy and uncomfortable it is. The “ghost riding the whip” way the Dean is killed is also fun. Entertaining kill scenes will make any slasher better. Entire films are entertaining simply, and only, because they have a collection of good murder sequences. Urban Legend offers more than just that, but I appreciate that the gimmick of the movie inevitably leads to fun times.
Yeah, I have complaints about the movie, but now’s not the time for those. I just watched it, and I had fun. That’s all that matters in this moment. But to wrap this up with by addressing my opening thought, no, I don’t think Urban Legend is a rip-off of Scream. It is slightly derivative in a few ways, but the overall tone is sufficiently different. Scream cleverly skewers the genre while embracing and subverting its tropes in unique ways. Urban Legend leans into its tropes with no pretensions. They’re both fun, but they come at the slasher genre from largely opposite directions.
Urban Legend Trivia
I unfortunately don’t have the DVD or Blu-ray for Urban Legend, so I couldn’t listen to the commentary to get some first-hand trivia. But we already have a good list of trivia for Urban Legend, so I’ll just point you towards that article.
