Review of Urban Legend (1998) by David C — 22 Mar 2008

I officially hate movies that do not live up to their interesting concepts. Why is it that whenever somebody comes up with something original (and I use the term extremely liberally) it inevitably becomes a gimmick? Can't we get a film that's simply *inspired* by a cool idea, which doesn't end up bending and contorting itself around the concept? Let's not cream ourselves over novelty or *gasp* the presence of an interesting theme and forget our fundamentals. Tell me the beautiful art of subtlety (especially in horror films) hasn't been lost.

Just as a cool little side-note, I wouldn't really categorize this film as a "horror" or even a "slasher" flick. It's more of the modern equivalent of a murder-mystery. How sad that all of the elements of the classic genre are here, but time (instead of ageing it like a fine wine) has placed suspense before good storytelling and puffed it up with gore and gimmick. Hmmm, a clever genre name to cover up this glaring defect... How about... "Neo-Whodunnit?" Yeah, I like that. ...The name of course, not the films.