Urban Legend [Blu-Ray]

By Clint Morris

Stomping in the footprint left behind by “I know What You Did Last Summer” (Ironically, this film’s director won the gig after shooting a self-financed mock trailer for that film and sending it to the producer – who just happened to be working on this little number too) and “Scream”, the two films that resurrected the teen slasher genre in unison, “Urban Legend” is a clever myth-motivated murder mystery featuring, well, the WB hotties o the day (and Freddy Krueger!!).

This one is truly its own beast but it also caries over the most appealing aspects of its predecessors : a pretty cast of up-and-comers, some hip dialogue and clever pop-culture references, a nice mish-mash of giggles and gore, and some great pop tunes.

Set at a New Hampshire college, the flick tells of a group of friends knocked off one-by-one – well, that’s not entirely true, there’s a heroine (Alicia Witt) who must survive in order to unravel the mystery; hopefully before the audience does, ha! – by a serial killer whose murdering people in the most creative of ways – his kills are all based on, as per the title, urban legends.

There’s lots of fun to be had here – the opening sequence, where a lass singing ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ discovers an axe-murderer in her backseat, is a highlight; Joshua Jackson’s death-scene is also rather clever (and the “Dawson’s Creek” joke just before it is, er, to die for) – and I challenge anyone to see it merely as “Scream”-knockoff.

Blu-Ray Details and Extras

This disc doesn’t have much pop at all – I know so because I played around with the settings on the player for about half-an-hour after starting the film just trying to improve the picture… somehow. I was convinced that I must have switched the wrong button somewhere or plugged the machine into the wrong hole.

I couldn’t put my finger on it though – the colours off? Was there too much grain or was a cord loose somewhere (it looked like a cable signal on a rainy night)? And why was there so much bleeding?

I then realized how great the audio was – the soundtrack on the disc was truly rockin’ – so the player was assuredly working. And after checking out the chords at the back of the machine and at the bottom of the plasma discovered everything was also plugged in correctly.

So yep, the video transfer is as poor as, well, the bonus materials on the disc (the main extra is an audio commentary from cast and crew that’s so bloody ancient someone actually declares Tara Reid ‘an up-and-coming huge star’ – quite funny!) and it’s such a shame; this is a great little movie, one would’ve hoped for more. They won’t be playing this one in the shops trying to sell players anytime soon.