Urban Legend

Classic Moviepooper: The killer is Brenda (Rebecca Gayheart)…And she doesn’t die at the ending of the movie, in spite of suffering a series of really bad injuries! (Thanks Curt, The Grand Poop-bah)

Pooper:
While in high school, Natalie and Michelle reenacted an urban legend to scare a random driver, accidentally causing the driver to die in a car accident. The killer is revealed to be Brenda, who was the fiancee of the man killed in the accident and is out for revenge. Brenda kills everyone but Natalie, Paul, and Officer Reese. Though the trio manage to defeat Brenda, it’s revealed that Brenda survived the ordeal and that she is the one recounting the story depicted in the film.
Long Ending:
The concept of this film is that a killer is mysteriously slaughtering college students in ways that mirror popular urban legends.

The film begins with a college student named Michelle stopping at a creepy gas station during a storm. The gas station attendant (cameo by Brad Dourif) tries to warn Michelle that someone’s hiding in her back seat. But before he can warn her, Michelle drives off (wrongly interpreting the attendant’s suspicious behavior as his trying to assault her) and is killed by the hidden figure. Michelle’s former high school friend and fellow college student, Natalie (Alicia Witt), is deeply impacted by Michelle’s passing.

Later, Michelle witnesses a hooded killer slaughter her friend Damon (Josua Jackson, who also is in a scene with a fantastic Dawnson’s Creek song needle drop) in front of her and realizes the killings are targeted. Ultra ambitious school journalist Paul (Jared Leto) agrees to help Natalie investigate. The two grow closer and even share a kiss, much to the chagrin of Natalie’s friend Brenda (Rebecca Gayheart), who has a crush on Paul. They initially suspect their teacher Professor Wexler (Robert Englund), who teaches a class on folklore and urban legends, is the killer. But Wexler ultimately disappears from campus and the killings continue. Campus security officer Reese (Loretta Devine) starts investigating the murders, but is dissuaded by the Dean who is worried the scandal will cause enrollment to drop. Meanwhile, the killer keeps taking out more of Natalie’s friends and roommate, including Tosh (Danielle Harris), Parker (Michael Rosenbaum), and Sasha (Tara Reid). The killer even ends up taking out the Dean! All are killed in ways described in urban legends.

Natalie eventually confides a secret to Paul. When in high school, she and Michelle were good friends. They decided to prank a random driver using an urban legend – the legend that gang members drive with their headlights off at night and then if another driver flashes their lights to remind them to turn on the headlights, they’ll chase down and kill the good samaritan. The grils drove with their headlights off and, when a samaritan flashes his lights, Michelle chases after him. Michelle takes it too far, even ignoring when Natalie tells her to stop pursuing the clearly scared samaritan. Eventually, the samaritan loses control and fatally crashes his car. Natalie and Michelle were given probation.

Paul, Natalie and Brenda decide to leave campus for their safety. At a gas station, Brenda and Natalie find Wexler’s body in the trunk of Paul’s car. Believing Paul is the killer, the women flee. They get separated in the woods and Natalie hears Brenda scream. Natalie eventually makes her way back to campus and activates an emergency light. As she waits for help, Natalie hears Brenda screaming inside an abandoned building. Natalie goes in to rescue Brenda… only to be knocked out by her. When Natalie awakens, she’s tied to a bed and Brenda admits she’s the killer (saying she planted Wexler’s body in Paul’s car).

It turns out that Brenda was engaged to the man Natalie and Michelle killed with their high school prank. She’s now killed everyone using urban legends, the same way Michelle and Natalie killed her fiancee. To finish her work, she plans to use the urban legend of a person who is drugged in a bar and wakes up in an ice bath with their kidneys removed and sold on the black market. Brenda begins slicing Natalie open when Paul arrives and distracts her. Although Brenda briefly considers standing down since she genuinely has a crush on Paul, she ultimately takes him hostage too. Officer Reese then shows up (responding to the emergency light Natalie activated) and begins fighting Brenda. Paul frees Natalie from her bonds in the meantime. Natalie manages to stab Reese, but then Reese shoots Natalie and she falls out of a window. Natalie and Paul drive off to get help for Officer Reese, only to be attacked by Brenda (who was hiding in the back seat, just as she did with Michelle at the beginning). As they struggle, Paul crashes into the guard rails of a bridge. As the only one without a seat belt, Brenda flies out through the windshield when the car crashes and falls into the river far below. Paul and Natalie embrace as Brenda’s body floats away.

Jumping to the future, we see that everything that just happened is being told as an urban legend by students attending the college in the future. The student telling the story swears that the story is all true. A voice interrupts him, saying that while some of what he said was true, some of it was made up. The students turn to see the voice belongs to… Brenda! She smiles while starting to tell the students the “true” story of what happened.

Order of Deaths:

• Michelle (legend about the man in the back seat) – At a gas station, the gas station attendant who has a speech impediment creeps her out as he tries to warn her there’s someone hiding in the back. Michelle drives off to escape the innocent attendant, only to be killed when Brenda (hiding in the back) decapitates her with an axe.
• Damon (legend about a boyfriend killed by being hung at a make out point) – Damon drives Natalie to a secluded make-out point to console her over her grief at Michelle’s death. When she rejects his advances, Damon goes into the woods to pee. Brenda subdues him and ties a noose around his neck, then throws the rope over a tree branch and ties it to the back of the car. When Brenda then attacks Natalie, she tries to drive off – accidentally hanging Damon (and his dead body then smashes through the windshield).
• Tash (legend about person who is murdered despite a witness being in the room because the witness doesn’t turn on the lights to investigate) – Brenda sneaks into Natalie’s dorm room and attacks her roomate Tash, pushing Tash on the bed and turning out the lights. Natalie walks in, but assumes her promiscuous roommate is just having sex and so she goes to sleep with headphones on. When Natalie awakens, she finds Tash dead from slit wrists and a message written in blood on the wall “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the lights.”
• The Dean (legend about a killer hiding under your car) – While getting into his car, Brenda (hiding underneath it) slits his achilles tendons. The dean tries crawling away, but Brenda releases the brakes. The dean’s own car runs him over, fatally impaling him on tire spikes he was crawling over.
• Professor Wexler – Although an early suspect, he disappears after being abducted and killed offscreen. His corpse is later found by Natalie in Paul’s trunk (Brenda hid it there so Natalie would suspect Paul was the killer).
• Parker (legends of dogs being microwaved to death, a killer’s call coming from inside the house, and pop rocks and soda being a lethal combination) – While on the phone with the killer (Brenda) Parker finds his pet dog’s guts smeared in his microwave (dog is killed offscreen, ostensibly microwaved until it explodes). While he vomits, Brenda sneaks up on him and beats him up. She then jams pop rocks down his throat but, instead of soda, mixes it with bleach to kill him.
• Sasha’s radio producer – Brenda breaks into the recording studio and buries an axe into the producer’s head.
  Sasha (legend of a person killed live on air) – Brenda chases her throughout the recording studio. She eventually corners Sasha (who injured her feet while fleeing) in the studio and hacks her to death with the axe. Brenda does it in front of Natalie who realized Sasha was in danger but arrives too late to help. People also hear the murder on the radio, but assume it’s a bit.
• Janitor (legend about gang members whose headlights are purposefully off and, when a good samaritan flashes their lights at them as a nice gesture to turn on the headlights, chase the samaritan down and kill them) – While fleeing Paul (who she incorrectly thinks is the killer), Natalie flags down the university janitor as he drives by. The janitor flashes his headlights at a passing car (driven by Brenda) whose headlights are off. Brenda then pursues the janitor and runs him off the road, killing him.