After a bravura opening sequence featuring Natasha Gregson Wagner getting slaughtered by the killer with an axe hiding in the backseat of her car, Urban Legend tells the story of a group of pretty college students at a remote New England university. The focus of the story is Natalie (Alicia Witt), a beautiful, academically-gifted student at the fictional Pendleton University. Natalie and her friends (who include Jared Leto as a brash journalist, Rebecca Gayheart as her best friend, Michael Rosenbaum as the party-hardy boy, Joshua Jackson as a practical joker and Tara Reid as the sexy campus DJ) are all involved in the Folklore class being taught by Professor Wexler (Robert Englund). Wexler regales his class with urban legends, which include Pendleton's own urban legend about a Psych professor who murdered six students at Stanley Hall 25 years ago. Natalie is the first one to suspect there's a killer on campus, especially after she has ties to all of the victims. First, it's her high school friend, a guy she's in the woods with at night, her roommate (Danielle Harris)... No one, including her friends, Wexler, Dean Adams (John Neville) and security guard (Loretta Devine), of course, believes her until it's too late and everyone begins to die according to famous urban legends, and Natalie believes it's all tied to a dark and horrible secret from her past. Now she finds that she and her friends are part of the killer's ultimate urban legend--the story of their own horrific deaths.
A good horror film that I'm surprised wasn't made earlier. I really enjoyed the concept of having urban legends come to life and kill people in reality. Featuring a very enjoyable cast: Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Tara Reid, Danielle Harris, and Joshua Jackson.
Warning, Spoiler:
I also will give this movie props for having a female serial killer, which I don't usually see. I think the only other film I can think of with a lead female killer in a horror film is FRIDAY THE 13TH.
