The Steves discuss the 1998 horror slasher Urban Legend, along with their favorite urban legends.
Topics discussed include
Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.
The Steves discuss the 1998 horror slasher Urban Legend, along with their favorite urban legends.
Topics discussed include
Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.
Hello, returning Happys and new listeners. This is Steve Bennett Martin. And this is
Stephen:Steven Martin Bennett, and welcome to a lifetime of happiness.
Steve:The podcast where we take you on our journey through some of the movies, shows and other bits of pop culture that are helping to keep us happy will hopefully bring a smile to your face along the way.
Stephen:And we're spending the rest of July covering one of my favorite horror trilogies, urban Legends.
Steve:Oh, I know this one. This is the one about the urban legends. That's right, yes. And why does the trilogy, or especially the first one, make you so happy?
Stephen:I love that it mixes. Horror in general with Slashers and the right amount of camp. And I've been a fan of urban legends since I was little, so this just hits all the right notes.
Steve:Yeah, I always like involved, like loved hearing urban legends, like when I was even younger. It was like those scary stories you tell in the dark books you would get at the book fairs and things like that. Exactly. Like I've always loved hearing creepy stories. And so you add that to like a slasher who done it where like. At this time, like in the heat of like scream one and two, and I know what you did last summer, you know there's a good chance that the killer is someone they know or someone we met or have seen before and they're mixing like these fun urban legends that you've heard about. So like, what, what could go wrong? It's awesome. Yes. What was your favorite urban legend growing up? So I've always
Stephen:loved the bloody Mary one whether you say it three times or five times, saying her name in the dark while looking in her mirror. And she'll appear to you. I will be honest that I've never done it personally enough times to make it count. Just like we don't say candyman three times in this house, it's best to keep both of their names out of our mouths.
Steve:Yes. Now, one of my favorite things about urban legends is like, like most, they're basically folklore. There's a lesson or like a takeaway for it. And I love that, like, especially like a lot of times, like we take very specific different takeaways than maybe the intended purpose was, or like, make rules around it that you don't normally hear. And like the main thing, like for you, for you, does it need to be in front of a mirror that you can't do it? Could I do it right now on this podcast in which you'd be comfortable with it?
Stephen:I, I'll stop you right there and not comfortable. Okay. I've always heard that it was in front of a mirror. I don't have a desire to test it out. Okay. So
Steve:just saying No, and I know, and I, I knew better than to say it once or twice than to start your counting. But do you also think that those are words where it has to be said consecutively, like, or if during a conversation, if you mention the new three times and maybe three sentences,
Stephen:I think that would count it. Don't think it has to be in a row, but it couldn't be like, You say it once now, once, three hours from now and once four hours from then. I don't think that would count, but like
Steve:I. Well, I, I hope we don't, but I hope we don't reference her two more times during this episode because it's gonna come up. So just be, let's be careful about what happens, listeners. I think
Stephen:it's all about intention.
Steve:Okay. There we go. All
Stephen:right. And what about you? What's your favorite?
Steve:The babysitter and the stranger upstairs? Like when a stranger calls, I like knew of, of this legend or like the story like back when I was babysitting and in the age of landlines and when I would like be babysitting the three kids up the street and like the phone would ring, I was always afraid like of like who it was like I didn't want to answer it. I was afraid the call was coming from inside the house and I was gonna get murdered and this was the aunt and say goodbye to all my friends and loved ones.
Stephen:Well, you didn't grow like I grew up in an age before. Caller Id. Well,
Steve:and, but like the thing is with caller Id, like, I didn't know at this that their house, the names that were showing up, it was like gibberish to me. Well, I guess that's true too. So, yeah. Yeah. Like I, and then I also just love and I like always thought it was a creepy story, but then you throw in the fact that when we did the research for like the origins behind it when we did the, our Stranger, when a Stranger Calls episode, it just made my love for it even multiply
Stephen:now. Urban Legend is a 1998 slasher film directed by Jamie Blanks, written by Sylvia Horta, starring Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gehart, Tara Reed, and Michael Rosenbaum.
Steve:Blancs also did 2000 ones Valentine, while is best known for adopting the Columbian telenovela into the ABC series that you love so much. Ugly
Stephen:Betty? Yes. Now Valentine, is that the one where Angel. Is in it with, I don't
Steve:think this, the baby face. I don't think so. Wasn't that my bloody Valentine? No, that's different.
Stephen:That's the one with Jared Padalecki.
Steve:Okay. Then this one, it must have been the one with him. Yeah. I don't know. I didn't research. So it's
Stephen:a very interesting cast. I mean, we have Jared Leto who a-list actor these days. Yeah.
Steve:Alicia, back when he was little on the
Stephen:baby. Yep. Alicia Whitt, who is main, more known as a comedic actress. Tara Reed who fell ill to the paparazzi during the Brittany Paris Nicole era. Michael Rosenbaum, that was on Smallville. I believe he was Lex Luther. Yeah. And my favorite person on the list, Rebecca Gay Hart, who I always used to think was the most beautiful woman on television when she was on 9 0 2 10. Yeah. And. Gorgeous, naturally curly hair like that and her performance in this movie. Is everything and we'll get into that
Steve:later. Yes, for sure. I know that just like Brittany and Paris and Nicole, I've always been a big like cheerleader for Tara Reid and always want the best for her. But as much as I love Tara Reid in this role, and I don't think she did a bad job, which we can, and she does not, which, okay, we can debate that later, but like she did a really good job and I love everything she does. I do love the f alternate universe where Sarah Michelle Geller, in fact, was originally accepted the role of Sasha in real life, but had to back out due to scheduling conflicts with Buffy. So I would've loved where like the scheduling worked out in this alternate universe and we got Buffy in it. Yes.
Stephen:Now I, I completely agree. Tara Reed does not do a bad job. I think she. This is probably one my favorite Tara Reed role ever. Yeah. But I would've loved to have seen what Sarah Michelle Geller did. With the role of Sasha, because I
Steve:think it could have been huge for her career because one of the, like she shows range of so many different things on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but like the one thing that she never really is, is like the foul mouth inappropriate college growth. Yes, I know. And I feel like it could have like broken. Into her, into like more roles at the time. Not that she isn't doing fabulous for herself in her life, but like I feel like it could have opened some doors for her getting an opportunity to see that she could make like fellatio and semen jokes and like that, like, and she's not just like pure here, heroic Buffy. And this would've been
Stephen:five or six months before Cruel Intentions came out because they came out my, they both came out my freshman year of college.
Steve:Yep. All right, and the film Co-stars two of Hollywood's most iconic horror movie, slashers. We have Brad Dorff who portrays Chucky in the child's play films, and
Stephen:Robert England, who everyone knows as Freddie Krueger from The Nightmare on Elm Street Films. Both show up here and we will point them
Steve:out. Yes. Now with the budget of just 14 million, it was released on your birthday, September 25th, 1998. Not the year he was born. No. I was 19 years old and he, it reached a box office of 72.5 million Holy cow. For a horror movie that is very successful and it led to two sequels that will be continuing over the coming weeks. So
Stephen:mom and dad came up to WVU for the weekend. And took Monika and I out to dinner in a movie to see this on my birthday and it was a good birthday. Then
Steve:this movie birthday, it was, does not
Stephen:disappoint. It does not, and I remember I. How good of a time that we had with it and I think we went back to see it as a group later
Steve:on. Yeah. I mean, this made your favorite list a couple different ways. Yes. But it also has your favorite intro ever, huh? Oh, so let's get into it.
Stephen:On a dark and stormy night. A young woman named Michelle Mancini is driving her SUV listening to a college campus radio DJ sex talk radio show with a caller saying that she swaps out her roommate's birth control with aspirin, and now the roommate is pregnant. Whoops. After nearly colliding with another car, she puts in a tape. Yeah, we're that old and she's singing the turn around. Every now and then I get a little bit and from total eclipse of the heart which will be. A little more ironic in a bit, and she realizes that she's almost out of gas and pulls into the nearest gas station, which if she had been paying attention, there was a fully populated gas station. A little bit ways back, but she pulls into a creepy looking rundown place in the middle of nowhere. What
Steve:can go wrong? But before we jump into that, like, because part of the fun of this movie is all the different urban legends. Did you ever hear the one growing up or have like someone say that they heard of someone who got pregnant because their birth control was swapped out with aspirin? Because like I remember hearing, like not realizing before this movie that that was a thing like that. Like I have
Stephen:never ever heard that before in my life. Yeah. Like
Steve:I, I, I do remember like, well I heard that so and so got pregnant because like, so like, cuz they were swapping out her, like she thought she was taking birth control, but it was just sugar pills.
Stephen:Yeah. I have never heard that.
Steve:All right. Well I don't think it ever actually happened. Probably, or maybe it did. Who knows? It
Stephen:happens on soap operas where someone switches out their own birth control pills. Oh, okay.
Steve:Oh, they did that on revenge. I remember there was, I guess. Yep, yep. Anyway, back to the
Stephen:movie. Luckily it's 1998, so gas is only a dollar 15 a gallon. What the fuck happened to us? Oh yeah. Gas used to be so cheap. When I first got my car, I remember it was less than a dollar at one point. I
Steve:have no memories of those low numbers. Oh,
Stephen:like getting, filling up your tank for$10. Wow.
Steve:I can't imagine.
Stephen:So the strange looking gas attendant Yes. Whose stutter hides the fact that his voice might remind you of a killer doll we all love. Yes. That's Brad Dora from the Chucky movies offers to fill up her car and Michelle, because it's raining and she's creeped out barely opens her window and pushes her credit card out to pay for it. As he's filling up the tank, he looks in the back of the car. After a minute, the attendant come back, comes back out and convinces Michelle that her credit card isn't working and the credit card company wants to speak with her on the phone, so she needs to come into the store. However, when she gets inside the gas station and he's locking the door, she picks up the phone and she hears, eh, and she freaks out. There's no one on the other line. The attendant approaches her and is, is excitedly stuttering, but he can't say anything clearly. She's freaked out. She grabs. Pepper spare and Mace puts it right in his eyes, breaks the window, runs back out to her SUV, and speeds away while the gas station attendant is running after finally gets his breath and yells there's someone in the back seat on the road. Michelle relaxes a little bit as she's singing. Every now and then I fall apart. And someone sits up in the backseat and swings and acts at her, and she literally falls apart as it takes
Steve:off her head. That is very funny and completely changes the way that you handle entering cars now, huh? Oh, no. I
Stephen:have actually always checked my backseat because that was an urban legend from before then, because you would hear the story. Of the person driving along and this person's getting up close and they're flashing their high beams at her every so often, and she's getting scared and she's driving faster and she's trying to get home and they keep going and they keep flashing their high beams at her and she gets into her house and she's running for the inside of her house and the person gets out of the car behind her that had followed her all the way home. And he's like, call the police. There's someone in your backseat. Oh no. And they're, they find someone there and they had had a knife and they were going to kill them. And the guy behind her had seen the person lean up every time, and every time he would get up, he would flash the lights knowing that she would turn around and so the person in the backseat would duck back down again. So ever since reading that as a child and driving alone at night, I. Always, always checked the backseat of my car and if for some reason I was driving alone at night and I forgot to check, I would reach into my backseat with my right arm and move it around really fast. Checking for a body prepared to pull over and make a run for it.
Steve:Yes, now I understand. Quite easily how you were able to train me to check my backseat before driving. But curious, how did you train our dog to check the backseat whenever he enters the vehicle? He's just a very good boy because he does that. The first thing he does is he absolutely does, pops in the front seat and then checks in the back seat. Anyone there? Okay. No, it's okay. Yeah. He
Stephen:always does. I wish I could take credit for that, but he's just a very good boy. There
Steve:we go. And my, I play devil's advocate and say that if this young lady was only more understanding of individuals with disabilities and speech impediments, she might not have been askeded.
Stephen:That's a life lesson for all, for all of our listeners out there. There you
Steve:go. That same night, Sasha is wrapping up her broadcast with a caller, worried about the semen she swallowed, being alive and swimming inside her and girl. We have been there. Luckily, Sasha thanks her for her choice of sexual activity because the world is not ready for someone that dumb to reproduce. And Sasha has the sage advice to stay away from the volcano before it erupts. And might I add it helps when the volcano goes off in the shower.
Stephen:Do you have a question to go with that?
Steve:Yes. Being in college at the time, I'm just wondering cuz I heard about it later on in high school, like was there the urban legend of the girl swallowing too much semen? She needed to get her stomach pumped. So
Stephen:n no. But when I was like 10 or 11 years old and new kids on the block was at its height. There was an urban legend going around that Joey from New Kids on the block had to go to the hospital and have a stomach pumped, and they pulled out an entire gallon of semen. Yeah.
Steve:So something along this lines. Yeah, I love that idea. I don't think that that's how it works. That's too much semen. Yeah. All right. Now meanwhile,
Stephen:Inside a coffee shop lounge at Pendleton University College student, Parker Riley is telling the story of the Stanley Hall massacre from 25 years ago there at Pendleton, where a professor goes crazy, grabs a hunting knife, went door to door at Stanley Hall, knocking and killing anyone who answers. The professor killed an entire floor before he offed himself. Thus the annual Stanley Hall massacre
Steve:frat party. By not celebrate a massacre that may or may not have happened. Of
Stephen:course, two of the students, Natalie and Brenda, listen with skepticism. Paul Gardner, a pompous college reporter, joins the group and SNES at Paul's yarn saying it's the same bullshit story you hear on every college campus in the northeast. Natalie chimes in saying, yeah. Where's the proof? Brenda, though is obviously attracted to Paul. Yes. By Paul.
Steve:Now, did you your college have any urban legends? Cuz I don't know of my college having any. We did,
Stephen:there was the Sunnyside Strangler you would hear about. Who's that? It, no one knew. It was just the person, like you don't walk alone home at night. Especially through Sunnyside, because years ago there was the Sunnyside Strangler that would choke people out until they died. And so that was always fun. When we actually moved to Sunnyside section of Morgantown, we drove home.
Steve:Yes. Now Natalie and Brenda walked towards the closed down Stanley Hall dorm building where Brenda suggests they chant bloody Mary as a hoot. Yeah. Right after they finished, Damon scares them. Natalie and Brenda split up where Natalie goes home to her dorm room where she interrupts her goth roommate Tosh, having sex with a goth guy. Natalie has to listen to music through headphones to drown out the noise so that she can sleep. Now, question. Go. We already talked about bloody Mary A. Little bit, but would you ever, being that the legend revolves around being around the mirror, would you say it in front of a haunted area where a massacre happened? No. That's
Stephen:worse. That is worse. I mean, there's already that much activity in a haunted place like that. Don't test the spirits people. That is my advice from me to you. Don't antagonize the ghosts.
Steve:Yes. Another learned lesson that we provide on this podcast. Yes. Now, while Natalie is Tasha's roommate here in real life, Danielle Harris, who plays Tosh and Tara Reed, who plays Sasha, have been roommates before they shot the film, which is funny how Hollywood works.
Stephen:I know. And Danielle Harris. A lot of people remind her as little Jamie Lloyd from Halloween four and five.
Steve:Oh, yes. Now what was your college roommate experience like?
Stephen:My the only bad roommate I had was freshman year, sophomore and junior year was my best friend growing up. Jay Kauf, never. He was a great roommate. Senior year, Lori Jorgensen, also amazing roommate. Once I was gay, it was a lot easier to have a female roommate. Yeah. My freshman year roommate, I don't even remember his name right now, I'm sure if I tried, doesn't matter though. He was awful. I remember having to take him to urgent care because he got stoned at six 30 in the morning on a Saturday. And spilled the boiling water from Easy Mac on his toes to the point that they immediately blistered up and he couldn't walk. And there was the time where oh God, there's so many things. He was just bad. Aw.
Steve:What about you? My college, my freshman college roommate, and I did our best to find some sort of common ground where our personalities clicked and we could. Bond and become friends. And we spent probably the entire first, like trimester I think we had, or like the first quarter or whatever, like trying to be friends and it just, we had nothing in common with one another. So like ultimately, like we left the experience with like a mutual respect of learning how to cohabitate a space. But there were times where like there was no point even like, After winter break, like trying to have conversations unless it was like planning logistics, just, and like there was no malice, no hate, no resentment either way, but there was just, we had nothing in common to talk about. Yep.
Stephen:Pretty much we weren't in the room at the same time except for sleep. We didn't. Have an antagonistic relationship. Yeah. We said goodbye at the end of the year. I never saw him again.
Steve:Yeah. Now, the next day in class, professor William Wexler, who left his red and green sweater at home so he could visit your nightmares later, is discussing folklore and urban legends like your fav with like my favorite, the babysitter and the stranger upstairs. After Brenda declines eating pop rocks and then drinking soda, because the story of Mikey from the cereal commercials who did it, and his stomach exploded everywhere. Damon walks up to the front of the class, improves, it's just an urban legend, but then Fein's going into a seizure and playing dead. Much to the annoyance of Wexler and the amusement of his friends and me. So
Stephen:when I first saw this and that happened in the movie, and he starts doing that, I was like, oh. Oh my God. It's real. Like it totally tricked me as an audience member.
Steve:See, and like I knew it wasn't real, but I was like, maybe they poisoned the
Stephen:soda or something. And I thought of that too. I was like, maybe there was something
Steve:wrong with the pop rats. Yeah. But no, he was just being an asshole teen, which was forgivable cuz it was cute and funny. So I love
Stephen:when Professor Wexler says that the cultural admonition of the legend is young women, mind your children or harm will come your way. And Brenda says, maybe the cultural admonition is. Don't
Steve:babysit. I like Brenda's answer better. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Meanwhile I remember this urban legend growing up about how your stomach would explode, but I convinced, I don't know where I got this from, but like how takeaways from urban legends can be funny. I remember the urban legend revolving around regular Coke Uhhuh, and so I thought that essence, at the time I was a Pepsi family and I only drank Diet Pepsi, that it wouldn't have the same chemical reaction. So I would have no problem like going to the candy store and having pop rocks and soda and being like, it's okay. It's Diet Pepsi.
Stephen:And I had stopped eating pop rocks by the time that I. Heard the urban legend of the stomach
Steve:exploding. Yeah. And speaking of Pepsi fun story. This scene is one of the first movies to show off the, at the time New Blue Pepsi can that launched that year. And nowadays it's pretty much the standard standard color. Prior to this cans were mostly whitish silver with Reddit and blue stripes giving off a very like, patriotic vibe of course. So I can see like the shift to the blue can probably helped with their international sales, I would imagine. Yeah. But yeah, I really like the Blue King, but that's also my favorite color. So more blue is always appropriate for branding and marketing.
Stephen:Later that day. Reese head of security is confiscating newspapers detailing Michelle Mancini's death. Paul tries to stop them, but Dean Adams stops him and says that there is no killer on campus and the only crazy person on campus is
Steve:Paul. Yes. I mean, has there ever been a horror movie where concern young adults go to the authorities who take them seriously and come to their aid? No.
Stephen:As we saw on the original slasher Black Christmas, the cops are never inclined to believe the students adults
Steve:suck. Yep. As adults now, it's unfortunate. Now, Natalie, Brenda, Paul Parker, Sasha and Dana meet at a coffee shop where they discussed the murder. I never had a group of friends this big, and it just seems very confusing. Natalie claims not to know the murder victims, but she has in her possession of high school yearbook, which shows that Natalie and Michelle were captains of their cheerleading squad. Dun, dun, dun. We learn this in her dorm room after she and Tash have a fight over using the landline for the modem or the phone. And boy do I not miss the nineties technology limitations. Damon arrives at Natalie's dorm room to console her and takes her someplace in his car to talk.
Stephen:One of like, I've never seen the show before, but, so when Joshua Jackson Damon cranks his car before he takes Natalie to that special spot in the woods, when it first comes on, the radio plays Paula Holes. I don't wanna Wait. Which is the theme song from Dawson's Creek, which also starred Joshua Jackson. I didn't watch the show, but I knew the reference and the whole theater thought it
Steve:was hysterical. Yeah. I think that like, yeah, anyone at the time knew of the, I don't wanna wait for Boston's Creek, and I thought that that was very funny that they included it. There's like, like a couple references towards the actors, which I really think is clever. Yeah. Now, I mean, you must have at some point had dial up internet, right?
Stephen:Oh, in college, once I was out of the dorm. So in the dorm you had perfect. Cable internet. In my apartments though, I had dial up internet the whole time and I remembered being envious of the kids who had cable internet because, you know, being able to use the phone and be on the computer, oh, my, or have two people be on the computer at the same time. Could you
Steve:imagine what life would be like with that? Oh, I love today. Yeah. I mean, I wish the world wasn't on fire, but I like the technology.
Stephen:After driving to a secluded part of the nearby woods, Damon tries to sympathize with Natalie saying that he had a girlfriend that died after being sick with a syndrome. And Natalie catches on and he is making up the story to get in her pants, though Damon Damon says that she's in need of loving. Mm-hmm. And he's just the man to do it. Natalie becomes angry and demands that Damon take her home. He goes to make a move and she punches him in the eye and he says, you don't have to act like such a bitch. Oh, trust me. It's not an act. He exits the car to, you know, answer the call of nature when someone attacks him with a rope. When Natalie's done waiting for him and goes to check on him, the killer, wearing a heavy hooded, winter overcoat attacks her. As she tries to drive away, Damon tied to a rope attached to the bumper. Hoisted through a tree is like hanging from the tree. His feet dangling on the car trying to get traction. It's not working like his toes barely scraped the top and he's being choked to death. So she finally guns it, which pulls him further up into the tree and she can't get away, and the hooded killers after it. And then she reverses and that lets Damon fall all the way down. And he crashes through the window. She screams, jumps out of the car and runs all the way back to campus security to tell Reese about the killing. But when they arrived back at the scene, the body and Damon's car. Are
Steve:all gone now. Is there any sort of way that you could experience that in real life and then logic yourself because cops and everything told you afterwards that you imagined it or it was a prank? No, no. She seems to try and want to almost, I. Maybe go along with it for a minute, but I'm not as also familiar with the origin of this urban legend they're referencing. How does it go? So there are two similar
Stephen:ones. There's this one where there's a couple in the car and one of the persons suspended above it with their fingers and it's their hands scraping. But the more popular one that people hear about is the couple that goes out to Lookout Point. You know, that popular spot in all the towns where people go and make out. Anyway, the couples out there and they hear an announcement on the radio about a crazed lunatic with a hook for a hand who was escaped from a mental hospital. They hear scraping along the car and the girl convinces her boyfriend to drive her home. When he gets her home and walks around to her side to open her car door, he finds a metal hook attached to the door handle. The killer had been just about to open the door and get the girl before they drove away. So that's the one I'm more familiar with. The, the scraping on the top of the hood.
Steve:Both. Very cool. Yes. Now, the next day after failing to locate Damon Natalie's friends or skeptic of her claims of a murder, And then he's just joking around, which is why you never play pranks. People will think you're serious. And
Stephen:also he had told others that he was going up to Killington, I think for snowboarding. Mm-hmm. With some people. So you know, not only is he a practical joker, but also he had already told people he is gonna be outta town. So, Natalie, you're just overreacting. Yeah.
Steve:Plus, during the conversation they catch on that these stories are referencing urban legends between what happened with Natalie last night, as well as the, the person being in the car. Mm-hmm. Being ax to death. And so she goes to the library to research urban legends by reading a book titled The Encyclopedia of Urban Legends, which I don't, does not exist. I was about to say, I wish it did. And she's helped by Sasha to give her a little bit more screen time. Yeah. They see the story of the person, the book with the backseat of the car, as well as the the high beam initiation for the gangs. Damon was the last person to check out the book, which leads to more theories.
Stephen:Yep. And so after this movie, I tried to find the Encyclopedia of Urban Legends. As this was the time before Amazon was around. All I had were Walden books and Barnes and Noble as my only help, and they had nothing.
Steve:I love Amazon. Yeah.
Stephen:Yeah. Nowadays you could probably type in Encyclopedia of Urban Legends and 16 different options would show up at Barnes and Noble and Walden books. They're like, we don't have anything. It's not even anything we can order. And I was like, that stink. Do you have anything on urban legends? We have like scary story. No,
Steve:no, thank you. Yeah. Now while Natalie's in the library, Tash meets a fellow goth guy online. I plan to meet. Well, Natalie's in the library. Tasha is chatting with a fellow goth guy online and they're planning to meet up. She goes to get ready while asking him where he is so she can meet up with him after she fixes her lipstick, which seems counterproductive for what they're about to do. But anyway, when she returns from the bathroom to get ready for the date, the killers reply online was in your room. In your room, and he is. Waiting in her room. Yep. And he starts to kill her. Natalie walks into the room and assumes that the noises and the struggle are toh having sex again. The killer pulls out the electrical plugs for the lights in the room, and Natalie goes to bed not realizing that Tasha is being strangled to death, but instead having the world's strangest orgasm. The next morning, Nalia wakes up to see her roommate dead from slash wrists, and a message left by the killer, written on the wall in blood saying, aren't you glad you didn't turn on the lights? Now rest in peace. Tosh. Yeah. Danielle Harris was a smoker at the time and thrilled to be allowed to smoke while working. However, she quickly realized that when all she has to do is shoot scenes of smoking all day long, that meant that she would have to smoke cigarettes all day. Long, long, and she eventually got sick of it and afterwards quit smoking. Now, is it just as easily as it's summed up here or is there like the urban legend of
Stephen:Nope. There. There are urban legends with this and there's two versions of this. One. They're very similar. Go for it. So we have two roommates, a big test the next day and one girl A stays home to study while girl B goes to a party. Girl B gets home very late from the party and quietly goes to bed trying not to wake up girl A who had fallen asleep studying. So we think, or in the other version we have girl B who goes to the library to study. Girl A decides to stay home. And when girl B gets home from the library very late, she goes to bed quietly as to not wake up girl A in all the stories, girl B wakes up and finds that that girl A is dead and a bloody note on the wall. Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the lights? So, Yeah, it's all about women that live alone and stay
Steve:home alone. Weird. Now, everyone thinks that Tasha committed suicide and the message on the wall was a very morbid suicide note. Natalie convinces Paul that Tasha's death was not a suicide, and they look for evidence about the Stanley Hall massacre, but they find no evidence because all the old newspaper clippings in the library from 1973 where the killings take place are mysteriously missing. Natalie and Paul run into the creepy looking janitor where they ask him questions about Stanley Hall massacre and the janitor tells them he's too busy being creepy, and they should go talk to Wexler. Natalie and Paul sneak into Wexler's office for evidence rather than talking to him directly in her co brought before Dean Adams. Paul asks about the Stanley Hall massacre, but the dean avoids the question by telling Paul that he's fired from the school newspaper and tells both of them to stop investigating something that never happened. Adams further tells Natalie that he knows she has a criminal record for reckless endangerment and served a year of probation, and that she is. To stop investigating the urban legends about the Stanley Hall massacre if she wants to stay in the college, because rules like that are definitely used to enforce things that didn't happen and that they're not hiding things exactly outside. Paul becomes angry when Natalie continues to avoid his questions about her past that he's not entitled to know at this stage in their relationship or if she knew Michelle now. Yeah, that was a lot. So while the janitor isn't a horror icon, like the other two gentlemen in the cast, it is fun that like when I was like, I know I've seen him before. Yeah. But I couldn't place where it's because it was everywhere doing like n, like small one line or zero line parts. Julian Richings is his name, and he has over 225 I M D B credits, like starting in like the mid nineties, going to today consistently.
Stephen:Good job. And he's also one of the biggest red herrings in the movie. Yeah, because he's always around. Andy's creepy.
Steve:Yes. Now we know our cast and we have some plot points at this point. We have Natalie's past with the victims, her probation. We have the Stanley Hall massacre. Now, during your first watch through, did you have any theories or suspects?
Stephen:Paul, the janitor and Wexler. I mean, if you're gonna have Freddie Krueger in a movie, there's a chance he's the killer. Just that in and of itself, the janitor was creepy and I already started thinking. And it was partially to blame on a Gail Weathers theory that I had had once of, what if Gail was doing the murders just to like sell books, sell, like be famous on TV at that point. And I was like, what if Paul's doing this to write the story to get himself, that student Pulitzer, that he almost won for the cafeteria? Food. Food outbreak thing. Yeah.
Steve:Yes.
Stephen:Now what about you? Did you have any?
Steve:I would say that I definitely saw potential for the Jared Leto character and like at that time I was like, the love interest we're due for that twist. I, I didn't know so much about the adults. I was like expecting it to be one of the teens. I was wondering whether it was gonna be, I forget his name, the douche bag boyfriend of Parker. Parker. I was thinking maybe like Parker would all of a sudden be like a smart, competent person. The killer. So that's what I was thinking at this time, but we'll see what happens. Yeah. Later Natalie walks into the campus swimming pool area where Brenda's doing laps when she thinks she sees the serial killer approach, but the figure in the winter coat is only a fellow swimmer, so she threw a chair against the glass for no reason and. Broke that window. Yep. Now in the locker room, Natalie Confines and Brenda, that she did know Michelle, she tells the story of how she and Michelle were out driving one nine on a dark road without their car's headlights on when a passing car flashed them. And with Michelle driving, they chased down the car, leading to the car, going off the road and getting the driver killed.
Stephen:Oh, that gang, high beam initiation.
Steve:Now I'm with Sasha. This is why I'm never helpful to strangers when driving. It's every vehicle for themselves out there. So I
Stephen:once pulled up in Cincinnati besides someone at a red light whose headlights were out. I got them to roll down their window even though everybody's windows were power at the time. You still do the roll down motion. And I said, Your headlights aren't on. And I was told to mind my own fucking business, but they did at least turn on their lights before they sped away when it turned green. Gotta love
Steve:people. Yeah. I was like, I don't know what it is. And it happens to me too, but like when people are behind the wheel, like most people turn into assholes. Yeah. Like the best of human beings behind the wheel. Is a deck.
Stephen:Well, that evening, Dean Adams is in the parking garage, and after having a quick conversation with Reese where he de dismissed all of her concerns about bulking up security, the killer ambushes him by slashing his Achilles tendon and then kills him because he starts to crawl away. They put his car into gear and let it roll over him, running over him and smashing him into the exit spikes. Ugh.
Steve:Yes. That and the, the start of that comes from the ankle slasher, urban legend. Yeah. Now you told me when we were watching that this is, What worries you? Whenever we're leaving my parents' neighborhood? Yeah,
Stephen:because they have those exit spikes and everything there. I'm always nervous about going over those exit spikes. Now,
Steve:is it because of watching this movie that you're worried about the tires popping or about someone be dragging you out of the car? Flashing your ankles and then impaling you on the spikes.
Stephen:Yeah, it's the tires. I always lock my doors. Good luck on them dragging me out.
Steve:Okay, just checking. Now at the 25th anniversary, Stanley Hall massacre party that Parker's throwing a rando tells Sasha about the urban myth of roller coaster of love, having a real death scream lifted from a 9 1 1 call. Did you hear that? Growing up. No, I didn't. Me either. I first time, apparently it's the thing. This movie thing. Oh, well. Now Paul arrives with an old newspaper article given to him by the janitor, which tells that Wexler was the sole survivor of the 1972 Stanley Hall massacre and that he may be responsible for the killings. Natalie admits how scared she is and just wonders why someone is doing this to her. And in a moment of weakness, she kisses Paul, which Brenda Witnesses, who leaves in a jealous rage. Now, have you been in this situation before? You the friend, get jealous over a guy choosing you? Yep. Okay. No comment. No comment. Okay.
Stephen:All right. So I'm gonna handle this next one because it's a part that you don't like. Yep. And so you can even cover your ears. Yep. Keep going. A little later during the party, Parker gets a phone call from the killer. Parker thinks it's the urban legend of the calls coming from inside the house because it's the phone in Damon's room calling. And instead he's told about what has happened to Rudy, his pet dog. Something so bad we won't mention it because Remy is listening right now. He runs to a nearby bathroom to throw up and that's when the killer attacks him by pouring pop rocks and liquid draino down his throat through a funnel.
Steve:Yes. And may I please write Con that the phone call was inaccurate and that the dog is a Wi Live and well, and that was just pieces of Wexler.
Stephen:I absolutely agree. There is no proof from anything we saw on that, that it was Rudy, thank
Steve:goodness. Now, am I correct as well that the Pop Rocks probably had little to no effect on the efficacy of the death by Drano? That is correct. Okay. Just wanted to clarify for science. Yes. Now while Natalie's trying to reach Paul, who ran off Sasha's, attacked at the radio station by the killer who chases her through the building with an axe, Natalie hears Sasha screaming over the radio, which everyone else assumes. It's just a performance bit for the anniversary of the massacre. As Sasha runs from the killer and fights for her life harder than the majority of victims and final girls in the genre, Natalie tries to make it in time to rescue her. Every time we watch it, we are cheering and cheering and cheering for her as she makes it. She down really tries hallways and and floors and. Elevators, especially
Stephen:after she breaks her ankle or something. I know
Steve:she's doing everything she can to survive. She wants to live and you could see it and feel it, which you don't always see in these roles. Right, and like her spiritual predecessor Helen Shivers. Yes. Sasha is moments from being saved when the killer catches up to her and access her to death. Natalie sees the killer, and the killer does a dainty finger wave at her. Meanwhile, researches Wexler's office, but finds the floor cover with blood. She calls the police, but because of a serious thunderstorm, the roads are washed out and they're like, don't worry, it's just blood. Reece goes off to find the killer on her own.
Stephen:Now this all seems to be happening in. Late fall, early winter, that killer is dressed rather warmly.
Steve:Yes. I mean, I never really noticed it during, because like I just would tell myself because they kept on telling us throughout the movie how cold it was. Right? That you just had to believe that it was like, Colder than it appears. Right. But it actually, I found in researching it, it's because the film was originally set during the winter where instead of being in thunderstorms, there was gonna be snowstorms and there was gonna be snow on the ground. And they were limited and being able to help each other and connect because of the poor weather. And they decided though that making fake snow during the time of year where snow's not naturally on the ground was just too much work. So they got rid of a lot of it, but they kept the killer's design and some of the. Comments about how cold
Stephen:it was, and I mean, growing up in West Virginia, that's totally like you would think, oh, living that high up in the hills and things, it's gonna snow a lot. Nope. Sometimes it was just cold. Also,
Steve:after living in Florida for a decade and going up to New York in 50 degree evenings, I wish I was wearing what the killer was wearing. I would've been a lot more comfortable than that, than in my shorts and my t-shirt I thought would've been appropriate for a June trip to the city. One would've thought Lesson learned. Yeah. Natalie runs into Paul outside her dorm room and becomes suspicious of where he went during the time that Sasha was killed. They both find Brenda and they drive off together to look for help. Brenda spots a gas station that they can use their phone to call for help. Yes. Now, at this point, like you could tell that all three are starting to get suspicious of each other. If you were Natalie, who obviously at this time is our final girl, who would you be trusting or who would you be more suspicious of out of Brenda and Paul?
Stephen:Paul at that point? Because at that point she doesn't really have a reason to mistrust her friend. Brenda's done nothing to show any of that where Paul. Suddenly disappeared, but shows back up again at her dorm of all places whenever he told her stay at the party, but he's suddenly at her dorm. There's no like, yeah.
Steve:Yeah, and I mean, and with today's knowledge and wisdom that I have, I probably would agree with you, but at the, at like if I was a college Steve, I would've followed the person who wanted to kiss me and tell me I was pretty, yeah. More so than my best friend probably. Unfortunately.
Stephen:Growth. Yeah. Well, Paul goes to the phone to call the police. Brenda apologizes to Natalie for how she reacted at the party. They hug, but then they notice a strange odor coming from the back. They exit the vehicle, go around to the back of the Jeep, open the trunk, and they also hear a familiar ringtone that they all know coming from it. They discover the dead and mangled body of Professor Wexler and assume that it was Paul. Brenda says, like I said, You can have him and they both run away into the nearby woods. Brenda trips and falls, but Natalie doesn't realize that she fell and keeps running. When she does notice, Brenda is gone. She calls out for her and we hear Brenda scream, but then we hear Paul's voice yell for Natalie. She gets back onto a road and Natalie's picked up by the creepy janitor. The janitor sees a car coming without its headlights on stupid kids. And before Natalie can stop him, he flashes his headlights to warn the other driver. But we all know that it's the killer in Paul's car. And the killer makes a quick youi, chases them, doing the gang high beam initiation on them. The janitor loses control of his car and they crash the janitor's bleeding and unconscious. So Natalie runs away alone back
Steve:towards the campus? Yes. Now question. At this point though, I understands the whole urban legend bit where the flack they flashed, made the killer turn around. Yeah. But do you think if he didn't flash that the killer would've kept on driving? No, the killer was gonna, yeah, the killer
Stephen:was gonna turn no matter what. Yeah, they needed to kill, but, but it, it made it for a really good moment.
Steve:Yes. Also, I'm no Scientologist, but wouldn't Wexler's body smell not as bad? I mean, it's been like, what, an hour or two? I mean, I know that they had to take pieces away from him to put into the microwave, but I mean, what's going on here? Here when
Stephen:a body dies, their bladder and bowels release, they don't show that in the horror movies, but all dead bodies in movies like this would have their pants filled with poo poo. Okay. So
Steve:it's not necessarily they were smelling rotting flesh that they were probably smell smelling, smelling as like shit. They were excrement. Yep. Okay, I'll take that. I like that. Thank you. Yep. Now Natalie returns to the campus and tries calling for help on a police phone, but she hears Brenda scream from inside the abandoned Stanley Hall building where there's a light on the third floor. Natalie breaks in and looks around to find the dead bodies of Parker, Dean, Adams and Damon. She finds Brenda lying motionless on a bed with a room lit with hundreds of different candles, exhausted and scared. Natalie sits on the edge of the bed to mourn Brenda's death, but Brenda sits up and knocks Natalie out. Waking up later, Natalie finds herself tied to the bed with the killer standing over her and the hood comes off to reveal. It's Brenda.
Stephen:I totally did not see it being Brenda like at
Steve:all, like at all. Funny story though, the Latin motto, the university optimist, Aus Amicus Feast or something like that. Yeah. Which you can see on the emblem in some of the scenes translates as. The best friend did it
Stephen:no longer acting like the casually nice and friendly girl. As we've seen through the movie, the Sneering and Wild-Eyed Brenda explains to Natalie that the boy who was killed in the accident by Michelle and Natalie years before was actually Brenda's boyfriend who she was going to marry. Natalie says, you're fucking crazy. I prefer the term eccentric, but I guess I am a little nutty. I already tried therapy. Obviously it didn't mean no good. Natalie. I
Steve:know. I love her when she breaks. So good.
Stephen:Brenda befriended Natalie this whole time to torment her with these urban legend killings as her insane way of getting even with her, as Natalie killed her boyfriend with an urban legend as well. Don't you want to be an urban legend, Natalie? All your friends are now, just as Brenda is about to kill Natalie by removing her kidneys as the kidney high urban legend, Reese appears to come to Natalie's rescue. But Brenda attacks Reese with a knife and wrestles the gun away from her and shoots Reese in the abdomen.
Steve:Yes. Now, while I'd heard about the whole date going wrong with the kidney heist thing, is it weird that the lesson that I took away from that is that kidneys could be a good source of income and I Googled how much I could sell my kidneys for and what the recovery and life afterwards of living with one kidney would look like.
Stephen:No, cuz I've done that too. And weren't you disappointed in how little kidneys go for these days?
Steve:How little they go for how difficult it is? I mean, once it became clear, you can't just walk into a hospital with two kidneys and leave with one and a big fat check. I didn't go through with
Stephen:it. Well, and even if you could find somebody online, I. Like it's not enough to turn your life around. Yeah. It's like for what you have to go through, it's
Steve:not worth it. Even when I was in college, I was able to understand that and there was a lot of shit I would do for a hundred dollars back then and
Stephen:like, but$30,000 is not worth losing your kidney. No.
Steve:I mean at the time it might have been if it, like, I would've thought at 18 or 19 that it would've been if it was easy to do as well, but it was just too much work.
Stephen:Just then Paul appears applauding Brenda for her revenge plan. And offers to be a part of it, that he's just gonna need a few details and he'll always be supportive and appreciative of her. Just go ahead and hand me the gun. Brenda's not fooled. You're cute, Paul, but you're not that fucking cute. But before she can shoot either one of them Reese revives, just in time to shoot Brenda in the arm with the force knocking the gun out of her hand. Natalie gets the gun and points it at Brenda. Are you gonna shoot me now? Natalie, what kind of friend are you? And Natalie shoots her and the forest throws her out the window and maybe potentially, but probably not dead. And I always knew Rebecca Gehart was a good actress, but her level of camp delivery on this is just so spectacular. Like this scene alone. Like she should get some special award for that scene, like the whole reveal up to the end. Bravo, Rebecca, gay Hart. If you ever hear this
Steve:clip that's like the, that's like the monologue of a
Stephen:lifetime. Yeah, like Bravo. I'm so proud of you, fan forever. Thank you.
Steve:Yes. Now as Paul and Ally are driving, after getting in touch and sending paramedics to Reece, they're talking up the new urban legend. This story will become as they ponder what the plot test will be. Brenda delivers it when she sits up in the back seat of the car, now attacks them with an axe in the same manner she killed Michelle in the opening scene. Apparently killing two people at once with one access by yourself in the backseat is a lot harder than just killing one. Unsuspecting girl. Yep. Paul smashed the car into the guardrail and Brenda flies through the window in through the windshield, off the bridge into a river. Far down below, maybe potentially, but probably not to her death again. Yeah. Now that's the end of the movie. Do you think that Paul and Natalie work out?
Stephen:Not even a little bit. They don't have anything in common. This is one of those situations where a highly traumatic event brought two people together. There is no way that they make it long term. They'll end up being, do you think they,
Steve:do you think they'll like bang it out in the post credit scene?
Stephen:Oh yeah. Like they have sex and they try to date, but before winter break, they're done. They're done. Yeah.
Steve:And hopefully both in. Therapy. Yeah. Now with all these plot points, I mean ultimately the last thing I remember with the Stanley Hall massacre was that Wexler like was the sole survivor. Yeah. But like other than that did and like having it be a good place to hide the bodies and stage the final act. Did anything come from
Stephen:this? No. Wexler got a job for life teaching whatever he wanted because of surviving the massacre. But the massacre itself was just a red herring for us to focus on, so we wouldn't see the puzzle pieces pointing to Brenda the whole time. Well, it worked for us because we were both surprised. Yep. Yeah. So this takes us to another college campus where a group of college students are telling this story, but saying it happened right there on their campus. One person says, that's just some bullshit story you hear on every college campus in the Northeast. Yeah. Where's the proof? The guy telling the story says, does no one believe me? And one girl says, I believe you, but you told it wrong. Here's what really happened. And the camera shows us Brenda alive and well.
Steve:Yes. And in this scene, Brenda's scene wearing a blue ribbon around her neck at the end, and this is a vague reference to another urban legend about a girl whose head falls off if she removes the blue ribbon around her neck.
Stephen:And I, that was in one of the scary stories to tell in the dark books. And the guy married the girl with a ribbon. And he'd always says, why do you wear the ribbon around your neck? Why do you, and finally when they were old, she took it off and her head fell off.
Steve:Oh, now the students also, I love joke and I bet Brenda was the girl from the Anima commercials, and
Stephen:I love that so much. And I was the only person in the theater that got the joke because Rebecca Gohar was the girl from the
Steve:Noxzema commercials. Yes. And now that we know Brenda was the killer, let me ask, when Natalie confessed after the shower situation? With the guilt? Yeah. For what she did. Do you think Brenda like ever reconsidered her plans or was she too psychotic and far gone?
Stephen:I tried. Therapy obviously didn't work for me. Natalie, she was too far gone. She went, changed to this campus to find her saying that she had guilt. Might have been great. If she had said, I tried to stop her, maybe, but Natalie tells the story. I just sat there. I didn't say anything I wanted to, but I didn't say anything that signed her death warrant. If she had said I tried to stop her, we might have had a different ending to the movie.
Steve:Yeah, it would've been interesting to see like if she like wavered or thought about it at all. But either way, I feel like the moment then at least, he's Parker kissed. Or the moment that Brenda season, Natalie Kissing Parker, it was game over either way. Yeah. All right. Well, we would love to hear what you thought of urban legend, the movie, as well as what your favorite urban legend is. As we get ready to talk about them for the next couple weeks. If you send us an email or make a comment on our social media as well, read out your favorite legend, urban legend on our future episodes. So you can do that by emailing us at happy life pod gmail.com.
Stephen:Or you can get in touch with us on the socials, whether that is Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter at Happy
Steve:Life Pod. And until next time, everybody stay happy.