The Jared Leto Scream Ripoff That’s Perfect For Halloween, Stream It Now
1998’s Urban Legend is currently streaming on Tubi, and is an absolute must-watch for fans of both modern folklore and campy slasher films. Though widely considered by critics to be a blatant Scream ripoff, this Jared Leto starring film stands on its own by boasting its own unique twist on the genre, and taking the supposedly real urban legends that we’ve heard about growing up to new heights.
Urban Legend has actually been credited by both cinema and folklore scholars for being the first major film of its kind that depicted a number of classic urban legends to the public through the art of filmmaking.
If you received concerned looks from your elementary school teacher for checking out Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 50 times during the school year, or found yourself going to Snopes.com to research the story about the dangling hook on the car door that supposedly happened in your home town, then Urban Legend is the slasher film that you didn’t know you needed in your life.
Urban Legend has actually been credited by both cinema and folklore scholars for being the first major film of its kind that depicted a number of classic urban legends to the public through the art of filmmaking. This film also marks one of the earliest instances of Jared Leto taking on a darker role after having established himself as a teen heartthrob in the ABC drama series, My So-Called Life.
The story of Urban Legend centers on Alicia Witt’s Natalie Simon and Jared Leto’s Paul Gardner, who are students at the fictional Pendleton University located somewhere in New England. The plot is set in motion when Natalie’s best friend Michelle is brutally murdered by somebody hiding in her back seat.
Her death comes following a confrontation with a stuttering gas station attendant who tried to warn her about the attacker but inadvertently scared her away with his attempts to keep her from getting back into her vehicle. Back at the university, students are talking about a massacre that happened on their own campus that happens to be approaching its 25th anniversary.
Urban Legend’s kills are so well thought out that we can’t help but wait to see how the next co-ed is going to get offed.
When a series of murders take place on campus, Natalie starts to realize that each slaying closely resembles the urban legends they’re learning about in her American Folklore class, but Jared Leto’s Paul, who is a journalism student, tries to comfort her by dismissing the coincidences as her imagination running wild.
Throughout the duration of the film, we’re shown a number of brutal murders that simultaneously make us sympathize for the serial killer’s subjects, while also saying to ourselves, “okay, wow… that was actually pretty cool.”
By gratuitously showing its namesake, this Jared Leto film does not disappoint with its delivery of folklore that, up to this point in time, has never been played out in such a clever way. One early reveal that lets us know what’s truly going on is the fact that Natalie is at risk of being killed because she and Michelle accidentally killed a man by driving around with their lights off, and then pursuing the first car that flashed them.
What started out as a fun prank ended up killing the unsuspecting driver, and Natalie suspects that the killer on campus is out for revenge because of this incident.
Though we can’t go too deep into the third act without dropping a serious amount of spoilers and reveals, Urban Legend’s kills are so well thought out that we can’t help but wait to see how the next co-ed is going to get offed. In other words, you kind of root for the killer for being so knowledgeable about urban myths, and expertly carrying out their executions. Even Jared Leto’s character, who is a skeptic at first, is able to put two and two together, and realize that a very real serial killer is using old legends as inspiration for their crimes.
Though widely criticized for taking a page from the Scream playbook, Urban Legend sets itself apart from the film that supposedly inspired it by using meta-humor to bring us some truly iconic kills.
The folklore professor, portrayed by Robert Englund, gets murdered in a parking garage after somebody hiding underneath his car slashes his ankles.
But perhaps the most iconic kill in this Jared Leto movie is the Pop Rocks and soda myth. In Urban Legend, the killer takes some creative liberties by dumping Pop Rocks into their victim’s throat along with a high volume of bathroom chemicals, causing him to foam at the mouth, and convulse until he finally goes still.
Urband Legend’s Sequels
Urban Legend was a commercial success, earning $72.5 million against its reported budget of $14 million. Though this Jared Leto movie received an abysmal 27 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, its financial success led to the production of its sequel, Urban Legends: Final Cut, as well as a direct-to-video title called Urban Legends: Bloody Mary.
At the end of the day Urban Legend is a derivative film that succumbs to the typical trappings of a run-of-the-mill late-90s slasher. But through its unique delivery and solid performances from Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Tara Reid, and Robert Englund, it’s still worthy of a watch because it makes so many callbacks to the myths that we grew up with during the early days of the internet. If you take the film at face value, you’re going to have a great time watching this movie at a Halloween party with people who love to scream as much as they love to laugh.
