Urban Legend

Tags

1990's, Alicia Witt, Horror, Jamie Blanks, Jared Leto, John Neville, Joshua Jackson, Michael Rosenbaum, Rebecca Gayheart, Robert Englund, Tara Reid, Urban Legend

Film Title

Urban Legend

Director

Jamie Blanks

Starring

• Alicia Witt as Natalie Simon
• Jared Leto as Paul Gardner
• Rebecca Gayheart as Brenda Bates
• Michael Rosenbaum as Parker Riley
• Joshua Jackson as Damon Brooks
• Tara Reid as Sasha Thomas
• John Neville as Dean Adams
• Robert Englund as Professor Wexler

It is a largely derivative of the success of Scream and it does show, but Urban Legend has enough good touches and competent cast to make it stop have a scare factor and fun.

A young girl from Pendleton University is brutally killed by a hooded man carrying an axe in her car, while heading back to campus. The campus is rocked by the murder, especially the studious Natalie Simon, who knew the girl killed and had significant events occur with her in the past. As another body turns up and the students get increasingly concerned about their safety, Natalie starts to form a link between the murders and the urban legends she has heard about in one of her classes, taught by the menacing Professor Wexler. Her classmates, in particular best friend Brenda and ambitious journalist for the paper Paul( who is always looking for a story) discredit her claims as just a matter of grisly coincidence. But Natalie has stumbled on to something indeed and it may just link to an alleged slaying that happened at the university decades before, but was never proven. As the killer continues the violent deaths based around urban legends, it is up to Natalie, who aided by Paul, must unmask the violent psychopath before anyone else dies in this ritualistic way. But with all the panic and so many people who it could be, is Natalie really going to be able to do this without getting herself killed in the process?

Jamie Blanks, who later went on to direct the better than expected Valentine, does some pretty good work in cloaking the movie in a spooky vibe. This is especially true of the muted colour scheme that renders the nighttime sequences in a blue haze that is very creepy as the killer prowls. And the opening scene of the film where the first victim is killed during a thunderstorm and sets in motion further death is a good way to start this kind of film. The script however is pretty problematic in many areas, not least the fact that the aforementioned Scream hangs over the film and shows this up as something of a copy. It does have some very suspenseful scenes in it and some of the humour is employed with spark, but it just starts to feel a bit inferior after a while. And later on in the film, the humour becomes a little bit much and doesn’t hit that jackpot due to the feeling of being stale. Don’t mistake this as that I didn’t like Urban Legend, in fact I enjoyed quite a lot of it, I merely found it to be a little too reliant on jump scares and the fact that it couldn’t measure up to Scream. For all the flaws it has, Urban Legend still has entertainment value and some of the story, in particular the gory methods of dispatch and how they link to stories that people dismiss as made up is realised with a good degree of inventiveness. An impressive score from Christopher Young boosts Urban Legend up a few notches with how effective it revels in the terror on show.

The characters in Urban Legend are nothing really new and are pretty much the people you expect in a generic slasher film. Still, the cast works well with what they are given. Alicia Witt is well cast as the main focal point that is Natalie, who becomes the first to piece the links between the urban legends and murders together. Witt hits the right notes of worry, strength and concealed pain, that plays an important role in how her character acts as she has something that she hides behind her smile. She may not be such an innocent girl, but she is the most accessible character which suits the acting of Alicia Witt very well. The charms of Jared Leto are displayed in his performance as the journalist guy who isn’t quite as cynical, hard-nosed or sneaky as he at first seems to be. Rebecca Gayheart is sparky as the flirting best friend, while Joshua Jackson and Michael Rosenbaum rise above the lack of material for them by playing the practical joker and jerks of campus in a good manner. Tara Reid suffers from a one note part( and performance) that gives her scant to do but be overtly sexy and then die horrifically. John Neville and horror icon Robert Englund add dashes of maturity and creepy experience as respectively the dean and the teacher who speaks of the urban legends that the killer seems to enact.

So so it isn’t original and not quite as hip as it looks to think, yet Urban Legend is far from a bad movie because it does have significant entertainment to be gleaned from the clichéd story.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Tags

1980's, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Amanda Wyss, Heather Langenkamp, Horror, John Saxon, Johnny Depp, Nick Corri, Robert Englund, Ronee Blakley, Wes Craven

Film Title

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Director

Wes Craven

Starring

• Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson
• Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger
• John Saxon as Don Thompson
• Ronee Blakley as Marge Thompson
• Johnny Depp as Glen
• Nick Corri as Rod
• Amanda Wyss as Tina

A seminal horror classic that is perfect for spooky viewing today on Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street is atmospheric and exceptionally directed terror that sucks you right in to the strange story and introduces the world to another horror villain in the shape of Freddy Krueger.

The film centres on a group of teenagers; Nancy, Tina, Glen and Rod, in a quiet town, who begin experience unusual things in their dreams. Tina is the first member to have the vivid nightmares, and who begins to get very frightened of the possibility of death by what she sees. All of the teens seem to have had the same dream of a scarred man with knives on his fingers called Freddy Krueger tormenting them. But these dreams take a definite and more sinister tone when Tina is actually killed while dreaming of this. Thuggish bad boy Rod is accused of the slaying and arrested, but Nancy( who is the daughter of the local police chief) is not to sure as she can’t shake the feeling that the shared experience of dreaming the same thing holds a bearing over this. Nancy is right about the man from the dreams being responsible, but everyone else thinks she his going crazy due to grief. As more blood is spilled, it becomes a struggle to stay awake and not drift to sleep, where Freddy can kill them. It also transpires that there is something hidden by Nancy’s parents regarding Freddy, that may just hold the key to his murderous appearances. Yet Nancy has already deduced a way that she may be able to render the seemingly omnipotent Freddy powerless. With an array of strong plans, she sets up battle against the monster that is Krueger, with the intent on putting a stop to his savage killings once and for all.

The horror maven that is Wes Craven is the man behind this work of cinematic horror. His expertise in the macabre and terrifying are bountiful and for all to glimpse, with most impressive achievement being the way he blurs dreams and reality to become jagged and indistinguishable. By employing this technique, Craven catapults the audience into the confusion of the central teens as they look for ways to stop falling asleep for fear of what will happen. There are numerous times when even we are not sure whether we are viewing a dream sequence or normality as the effect of each is meshed to such a spectacular degree. Memorable moments come from this film and continue to enthrall. My personal favourites being the opening dream of Tina’s in the boiler room that sets the atmosphere of the film, Nancy following a ghostly vision of Tina wrapped in a bloody body bag and Nancy’s setting of traps to ensnare the bogeyman of Freddy for good. A Nightmare on Elm Street established the horror icon of scarred child killer Freddy Krueger, who no doubt had viewers terrified of going to sleep and still no doubt does that today. With that maniacal cackle, gruesome appearance and sly wit, he is one of the best villains to come from the horror genre. The sins of the parents theme is visited quite well and adds another element of tension to the strange mix at work. Where the biggest points are scored in A Nightmare on Elm Street is the aural landscape of spooky synthesizers and repeating percussion to create a haunting, childlike influenced score of sinister backbone that will make even the most serious person afraid and with nerves jangled.

The lead character of scared but plucky Nancy is embodied by the naturalness and likable delivery of Heather Langenkamp. Nancy is the only person who realises the link between the dreams and the deaths and sets out to. She is depicted as a strong and intelligent young girl who is adept at survival and unlike some girls in horror that are thrust into battling, Nancy is the instigator of the fight with a fierce determination. The smarts are wonderfully provided by the assured work of Heather Langenkamp, who shows us a Scream Queen of cleverness and vigor. Robert Englund cements his place in movie history with his creepy interpretation of the knife-wielding Freddy Krueger. With a despicable and unearthly menace, he scares the hell out of everyone because of how powerful the character seems to be(and the fact that dreams are uncontrollable).  John Saxon and Ronee Blakley contribute a sense of unspoken terror and knowledge playing Nancy’s parents, who have more than a little inkling of what is going on. A young Johnny Depp in his movie debut, portrays the goofy boyfriend of Nancy who is also dragged into the creepy goings on that plague him and his friends. Nick Corri and Amanda Wyss are used well as two of the teens who fall victim to the slayings.

Frightening from start to finish and packed with spine-tingling events, not least of which is the ability to traverse reality and imaginary, A Nightmare on Elm Street is deservedly a classic of the horror genre for its execution and ability to scare, even by today’s standards.