Urban Legends: The Final Cut follows Amy Mayfield, a student at Alpine University who struggles to complete her thesis film on urban legends – only to have her crew members fall prey to fatal ‘accidents.’ Suspicious, Amy investigates and discovers a much more sinister hand at work. Now she must unmask the killer before she, too, becomes an urban legend.
Urban Legends: The Final Cut is about as good or as bad as you’d expected from cheesy 90s horror. A sequel to 1998’s teen-slasher flick, Urban Legends, your enjoyment of this film is hinged solely on how you view the original. Personally, I felt the first movie was a great addition to the ’90s slasher craze. Fast forward 2 years and we have Final Cut. This film is another solid little slasher and despite some flaws, is a fun way to burn a couple of hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyB_ZAaNk18
Directed by John Ottman who is primarily known as a composer (Halloween H2O) and featuring a surprisingly extensive cast (once again) that includes Hart Bochner, Eva Mendes and Anthony Anderson, this legend revolves around a film school where students are competing for the Hitchcock film award. When innocent Amy Mayfield (Jennifer Morrison) decides to make a movie loosely based on the events of the first film, her crew finds themselves slowly being picked off one by one by a killer wearing none other than a fencing mask. Similar to the first, he uses a few classic urban legends as inspiration for his kills, but like the majority of sequels we don’t see anything too different from the original and some kills feel flat/lazy!
Surprisingly grisly and gory, Final Cut is more fun than anything else. Although this movie is a favourite of mine, do not expect a masterpiece or Hitchcock piece. Instead, prepare yourself for a gory teen slasher among the likes of Friday the 13th. It’s not an amazing film by any stretch of the imagination, but far better than expected. For fans of the genre who don’t mind some random pointless character deaths and can overlook the cheesy plot then this movie is for you. Fun to sit down with a bowl of popcorn and munchies, don’t take it too seriously, and certainly just as good as the first flick!
Legends never die…
