Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)

A film school is the center of a fresh spate of killings based on urban legends.

Director:

John Ottman

Writers:

Silvio Horta (characters), Paul Harris Boardman

Stars:

Jennifer Morrison, Matthew Davis, Hart Bochner

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jennifer Morrison	...	Amy Mayfield
Matthew Davis	...	Travis Stark / Trevor Stark
Hart Bochner	...	Professor Solomon
Loretta Devine	...	Reese
Joey Lawrence	...	Graham Manning (as Joseph Lawrence)
Anson Mount	...	Toby
Eva Mendes	...	Vanessa Valdeon
Jessica Cauffiel	...	Sandra
Anthony Anderson	...	Stan
Michael Bacall	...	Dirk
Marco Hofschneider	...	Simon
Derek Aasland	...	P.A. Kevin
Jacinda Barrett	...	Lisa
Peter Millard	...	Dr. Fain
Chas Lawther	...	Dean Patterson

Storyline

Urban Legends: The Final Cut follows Amy Mayfield (Morrison), 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.

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Plot Keywords:

urban legend | film director | serial killer | film student | sequel | 

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Taglines:

This Fall, Legends, Never, Die.

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence/gore, language and some sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Phoenix Pictures / John Ottman

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 September 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Leyendas urbanas: Corte final

Filming Locations:

Ontario Place, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$14,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$8,505,513, 24 September 2000

Gross USA:

$21,468,807

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$38,574,362

Company Credits

Production Co:

Phoenix Pictures, Canal+ Droits Audiovisuels, Original Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jennifer Morrison was in another horror movie, Stir of Echoes (1999), starring Kevin Bacon.

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Goofs

When Stan is attacked in the terror train ride, the miner's light on his head is knocked off. When the shot next cuts to him it is back on his head, then off, then back on again.

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Quotes

Reese: Urban legend, my ass.

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Crazy Credits

As the end credits roll, Professor Solomon is being pushed in a wheelchair by a nurse who happens to be the killer from the first movie!

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Alternate Versions

The DVD edition of the movie has 7 deleted scenes:

• One shows some characters (Amy, Vanessa, Sandra, Travis, Graham, Toby and Stan) discussing after being in the convention of the film school.
• Other shows Amy writing the script of the movie (there's 2 parts)
• Other shows Sandra saying "Goodbye" to Amy, minutes after finishing the first day of the shooting of Amy's film.
• An "alternate"-expanded scene of Amy and Trevor talking about the killer's attack in the Tunnel Of Terror.
• An alternate ending showing Amy and Trevor holding after wrapping the filming of Amy's movie.

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Connections

References The All-New Super Friends Hour (1977)

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Soundtracks

Funeral March of the Marionette
Written by Charles Gounod (as Charles Gound)
Performed by Lalo Schifrin and the San Diego Symphony Pops
Under License from Platinum Entertainment, Inc.
By arrangement with Modern World Entertainment

User Reviews

An average slasher with some nice touches

Amy is in her second year of her film studies course at Alpine University and is still wondering about what her student film should be about. She decides to make a short horror film where a killer offs his victims in the style of urban myths. Despite the fact that a major Hollywood had been done on this subject less than two years before, her teachers give her the go ahead, compare her to Hitchcock and her friends are all enthusiastic. However as she attempts to shoot her various scenes, somebody is really killing people in that style and hiding their bodies; but can Amy stay alive long enough to convince other people that it's really happening? Given that the first film just gave up on its connections to urban myths I suppose I should at least praise this film for having a script that works out how to keep the material at least semi-related to the title/concept. However that is pretty much the only praise I will give to it because it is just a standard slasher movie – they all have a hook (a gimmick or, in the case of "I know What You Did etc", literally a hook), sexy girls, buff boys, red herrings and lots of gore. So if that is all you want then this average film should just about do you. The plot isn't much cop and it is pretty much a case of counting the cast members alive to work out how long is left, but it is passable for this sort of film. Of course it is only OK if you ignore what it could have done. It could have said so much and taken a sly look at violence in movies; for example the bit where they watch a film of a girl getting killed and enjoy it; that could have been a clever question to the audience but it didn't do anything of the sort. Of course what I did like were some clever in-jokes and confused film realities that served to provide another level to distract me from the poor main – this is occasionally subtle but also works when it is blunt (ie Gayheart's cameo).

Some of the stuff is actually quite thrilling and the film has a good atmosphere considering it is just a slasher movie. It does have some good ideas as well and I did thing the Mexican standoff at the end was a nice touch. The cast are par for the course at best. Morrison is a typically bland blonde and didn't do anything special with her lead role – she isn't awful but she is nothing special. The rest of the cast just go through the motions, acting suspicious, scared or sexy as required – the sight of Anderson terrified me but happily he had little time, however it is simply cruel to cast Eva Mendes as a flirtatious lesbian but then only give her a small amount of screen time! Overall this is a standard slasher movie but it works better than the original film because it actually sticks to the concept as well as having some nice self-awareness and film within a film sort of stuff that is distracting from what is really a red-herring laden, twisty plot that could have come from any slasher film. The cast are pretty average but some of it is quite exciting if you get into it and, while it is an average film in a generally poor genre, it is not a bad film.