Urban Legend *** (1998, Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Robert Englund, Brad Dourif, Rebecca Gayheart, Loretta Devine, Joshua Jackson, John Neville, Tara Reid) – Classic Movie Review 629

Aussie director Jamie Blanks makes his feature film debut with Urban Legend, an intriguing 1998 entry in the Nineties new wave of in-joke horror thrillers.

Somebody is acting out urban legends at a New England college, with fatal results, in Jamie Blanks’s 1998 slasher film Urban Legend, starring Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart and Tara Reid.

A film star with rodent problems; mutant alligators living in New York’s sewers; the babysitter getting calls from a killer in the upstairs bedroom; an old lady who dries her cat in the microwave; human kidneys cut out and sold on the black market…

At a New England college, the fictional Pendleton University, where a sinister professor called William Wexler (Robert Englund, A Nightmare on Elm Street’s nightmare Freddie Krueger) is teaching a course in such urban legends, somebody is acting out such tall tales and macabre myths with fatal results.

Before everyone is bumped off in turn, one of the students (Alicia Witt) sets out to uncover the killer with the help of an aggressive journalist (Jared Leto) on the school newspaper. Aussie feature film debut director Jamie Blanks (aged 26) is largely firing blanks in this intriguing, nasty but somewhat ham-fisted 1998 entry in the Nineties new wave of in-joke horror thrillers set off by Scream.

A lack of credibility, conviction and imagination all start to take a deadly toll on the movie’s blood-stained path to its laughably absurd finale. But the idea is ingenious, there are plenty of gruesome shocks along the way and the young actors seem plenty talented enough. And it was a hit at the box office, so a sequel, Urban Legends: Final Cut, followed in 2000, without Jamie Blanks. A direct-to-video film Urban Legends: Bloody Mary followed in 2005.

Urban Legend also stars Brad Dourif, Rebecca Gayheart, Loretta Devine, Joshua Jackson, Michael Rosenbaum, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Danielle Harris, John Neville, and Tara Reid.

Also in the cast are Julian Richings, Gord Martineau, Kay Hawtrey, Angela Vint, J C Kenny, Vince Corazza, Stephanie Mills, Danny Comden, Nancy McAlear, Shawn Mathieson, Clé Bennett, Danielle Brett, Roberta Angelica, Matt Birman and Silvio Horta.

Urban Legend is directed by Jamie Blanks, runs 100 minutes, is made by Original Film and Phoenix Pictures, is released by TriStar Pictures, is written by Jamie Blanks and Silvio Horta, is shot by James Chressanthis, is produced by Brad Luff, Gina Matthews, Michael McDonnell and Neal H Moritz, is scored by Christopher Young, and is designed by Charles Breen.

Principal photography began in Toronto on April 20, 1998, with the University of Toronto standing in for the fictional Pendleton University.

Release date: September 25, 1998.

It earned $72.5 million against a $14 million budget.

Blanks sought to keep on-screen violence muted or implied, though it starts off with a killer decapitating student Michelle Mancini (Natasha Gregson Wagner) in the backseat of her car.

Jamie Blanks (29 November 1971 – 16 March 2026)

Australian film director and composer Jamie Blanks (29 November 1971 – 16 March 2026) directed the cult slasher films Urban Legend (1998) and Valentine (2001) and the horror films Storm Warning (2007) and Long Weekend (2008). The 1993 short film Silent Number is Jamie Blanks’ first film and is available on YouTube.

Jamie Blanks died in Melbourne, Australia, on 16 March 2026, aged 54.

© Derek Winnert Classic Film Review 629 derekwinnert.com

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