Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: After a car accident, a group of teens tell each other scary stories while waiting for help.
Review: Offbeat movies like this make me miss the days of rental stores. Sure, the individual stories are unbelievably predictable--simply recreations of existing urban legends--but the production value is surprisingly decent. The cast is also full of recognizable faces including my favorite, Ron "Say hello to Lumbergh for me!" Livingston. The other aspect that, kind of, holds things back is this PG-13 vibe to the stories. There is nudity, but I expect a darker tone to match the adult content. Oh well. This was the "Scream" era after all so the presentation is going to feel slightly unusual due to this.
Wraparound: Four teens, driving wildly after a concert, crash and magically go unscathed outside of a few scratches. Setting up road flares, the group takes shelter at an old church where they start a fire. To take their mind off the situation they tell various scary stories. Honestly, if you can't see the twist coming a million miles away, it's time to quit horror movies forever. SURPRISE, they've been dead all along except for one of the teens who sees himself die at the end of the film. Eh, the setup isn't as cornball as you'd expect. I did like the way the characters from the individual stories were different people at the scene of the accident. As far as wraparounds go this wasn't bad at all.
The Hook: This story actually takes place before the teens crash, but it's the shortest of the bunch. It's just the usual tale of a couple making out at a lovers' lane who hear about an escaped mental patient on the radio. The girl thinks she hears something so they take off only to later realize the hook is stuck on the door handle. I'm okay with the way they establish this scenario, but I could have told you this tale in my sleep at this point--it's one of the oldest urban legends out there. The one amusing part was having James Marsden begging for a handjob. This guy cannot catch a break in any movie he's in!
The Honeymoon: I suppose this was the only, somewhat, unique story in the bunch. A recently married couple are crossing the country in a RV for their honeymoon. The two stay for the night nearby an old hiking trail, or whatever it was, where people were once lost and forced into cannibalism. After fucking once, a weird guy shows up and tells them to leave, because the area isn't safe. Trying to avoid the situation altogether, the couple leaves, but they run out of gas conveniently. That weird guy ends up getting killed by, what I'm assuming is, the cannibals still living in the area; it's really unclear what they are. Back to fucking again...which, by the way, this is a great honeymoon...the husband realizes the wife's ankle is swollen. What, from all the fucking?! Damn. The husband heads for gas, but, shocking no one, he ends up getting killed by these freaks. These same freaks attack the wife, but she fends them off with a siren or something. I don't know. A cop shows up the next day and tells the wife not to turn back when leaving the RV, but she cannot resist. Sure enough, the husband is hanging from the roof with his wedding ring scratching the roof. See, as lame as cannibals are, I didn't mind changing things up with this urban legend. Though...they don't really stress the scraping on the roof which is crucial to the plot of that urban legend. Come on, son.
People Can Lick Too: Although not much happens, I kind of like this one the best due to the forward-thinking of the premise. Some tween-ish girl has an internet friend that is actually a pedophile or killer or whatever the hell. Not realizing the truth, the girl discloses she will be home alone which prompts this guy into action. They never explain how he already knew where she lived or how he got there so quick, but I'll let it pass. Slowly stalking the girl, the guy manages to sneak into the girl's room at one point. Somehow psychically knowing the dog usually licks the girl's fingers for reassurance, this bastard does the same thing to her. The stupid part was that he wrote "people can lick too" on the mirror ahead of time. The girl freaks out, runs away, and the creepy dude escapes before help can arrive. So wait...what exactly was this guy's game plan here? Take the time to befriend girl online, stalk her and film her, break into her house when you had the opportunity, kill her dog so you can lick her fingers, then run away? Sounds legit. Carry on. What I like about this entry is the whole creepy internet guy and such. I'm surprised they were worried about this phenomenon already in '97.
The Locket: This is probably the dumbest of the group since it really doesn't make sense. You have a guy traveling across country on his motorcycle when it breaks down suddenly. With a storm coming in, the guy seeks shelter and assistance at a nearby farmhouse. The man meets a mute woman living at the house who wears a familiar locket. The two feel a kind of longing to be together, but this is interrupted by the woman's angry father who shows up. Lots of shenanigans unfold as the man sees a murder and dead bodies appear only to quickly disappear again. For whatever reason, the man and woman witness some kind of ghost loop yet fail to realize it is them as the victims. Upon fleeing the house, the two rest by a tree until the man grows curious about the locket. Opening it up, he sees that the photos inside are of him and the woman. Oh noooes! Another story where they're dead and don't know it. The segment ends with the chick's head rolling off without the locket, and they never explain how a ghost can be riding around on a motorcycle. There are a lot of imaginative ways they could have approached this plot line--a few pornoriffic ways too--but this was about as hollow as it could get.
Despite the huge flaws, I really do enjoy this film. It's not the greatest in the world, but it's a huge step above the shit that constitutes for rental material these days. If the stories weren't by the numbers, I think this film could be at cult classic levels. Instead, this is a mostly forgotten film that virtually no one I know has ever seen or heard of. I would recommend checking it out, but you should anticipate the lack of originality. Likewise, the actual film "Urban Legend," which came out a year later, is significantly better than this.
Notable Moment: At the end when we see a lot of the individual characters reappear as onlookers, medics, and police cleaning up the teens' accident. That was, admittedly, a nice touch.
Final Rating: 5.5/10
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