Urban Legend (film)

Urban Legend is a 1998 American slasher film starring Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, and Rebecca Gayheart. The film is based on the premise that a killer is using the methods of death described in certain urban legends to kill students at a New England university.

The film was followed by two sequels: Urban Legends: Final Cut, which was released theatrically in 2000, and the direct-to-video film Urban Legends: Bloody Mary in 2005.

Plot

At a gas station, Michelle Mancini (Natasha Gregson Wagner) fights off an apparent attack by a stuttering attendant (Brad Dourif). However, he was actually trying to warn her of an attacker in the back seat, and as Michelle drives off, the attacker in the back seat decapitates her with an axe. On a college campus, student Parker Riley (Michael Rosenbaum) relates how one of the campus halls, Stanley Hall, had been the site of a massacre in 1973. The story is discredited by school journalist Paul Gardner (Jared Leto).

As Natalie Simon (Alicia Witt) is shaken by Michelle's death, Damon Brooks (Joshua Jackson) offers to talk and the two drive into the woods. Damon is attacked by the killer, who hangs him from a tree with the rope attached to the car. As the killer approaches Natalie, she attempts to run him over, strangling Damon to death in the process. As the killer recovers, Natalie tries to drive away but Damon's body lands on top on car, forcing Natalie to flee and alerts security guard Reese Wilson (Loretta Devine) who doesn't believe her when they find the car and Damon's corpse missing.