heard the one about..... (Urban Legend (DVD))

Member Name: utero

Product:	Urban Legend (DVD)
Date:	13/04/01 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: decent extras

Disadvantages: not the best film

....another teen horror film that cashed in on the wave of Screams popularity ?

Urban Legend is a film that really arrived as the inferior horror films were starting to come out. As a result it wasn't a huge hit in the states or over here but made its money back and spawned a useless sequal.

The film is nicely shot with a good amount of ambience but it's really not scary and more nasty. The cast is pretty woeful with some annoying "teens" that you really would love to see picked off quickly. Basically there is a killer on campus who is commiting murders based on Urban Legends. Who could it be ? Maybe it's the creepy professor played by Freddy himself Robert Englund- no too obvious or maybe it's the laid back collage paper reporter. Well the one we do know is that the killer stalks their victims dressed in an eskimo coat that renders them completely laughable and dumb.

Still it's good fun and not the worst horror flick made. Viewers should have a good time and appreciate some of the scenes for having some imagination.

The dvd is presented in 2.35:1 anamoprhic widescreen. The picture quailty is good and really keeps all the dark colours balanced. The R1 version also has a panm and scan version included.

Sound wise it's Dolby Digital 5.1 and as you'd expect when the terror and chasing kicks in the speakers come alive with musical score and ambience.

This is an early dvd release so the extras are slim but whats here is actually quite good.

First up is a brief 'making of' featurette. Unlike most you've seen this actually has a lot of rough behind the scenes footage from filming as well as scoring sessions. It's all commented on by the director, writer and a cast member and finishes with a deleted sex scene that is pretty lame and deserved to be cut.

The other worthwhile extra is an audio commentary that features Director Jamie Blanks, Writer Silvi
o Horta and Actor Micheal Rosenbaum. This commentary is quite entertaining and tells a lot about certain scenes but also proves one of my theories. Die hard fans of all horror films shouldn't direct them as they don't understand what makes a horror film really great. Blanks seems really pleased with the gore and carnage and doesn't really get that tension and character make the film.

Rounding out the dvd is the trailer and some cast biographies.

This is a dvd that isn't a must have but although I'm not a great fan of the film I still like to keep it in my collection as it is entertaining in some instances and unintentionally good for a laugh in some cases.

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