July 19, 2023 • 47 mins
The Steves discuss the 2000 slasher sequel Urban Legends: Final Cut, along with more of their favorite urban legends.
Topics covered include:
- Names and numbers behind the scenes
- The origins behind the legends mentioned in the movie
- Having professional motives versus interpersonal motives
- Our feelings of how it could have been better
- And much more!
Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve (00:03):
Hello, returning Happys and new listeners.
This is Steve Bennett Martin.
And this is Steven
Stephen (00:07):
Martin Bennett, and welcome to a
Steve (00:09):
lifetime of happiness.
The podcast where we take you onour journey through some of the
movies, shows, and other bits ofpop culture that are helping to
keep us happy while hopefullybring a smile to your face along
the way.
And
Stephen (00:19):
we're spending July covering one of my favorite
horror trilogies, urban Legends,and next up is Urban Legends.
Final cut.
Steve (00:28):
Yes.
But before we get into how thisstacks up to one of your
favorite movies of all time whydo urban legends in general make
you happy?
Stephen (00:37):
I love them because they remind me of the scary
stories to tell in the darkbooks from when you were little
or stories that you would tellaround a sleepover trying to
scare each other before bed.
They're fun and they're creepy,and everybody knows at least
one.
And there's always that story.
(00:58):
They're like, Well, I know thatthat one's fake, but there's
this one in my hometown.
Steve (01:03):
Yes.
Yeah.
And, and I love with that how itbecomes almost like our, our
generation's version of folklorethat you have these oral
traditions that are passed onfrom person to person, where
even in the age of the internet,you're never really sure exactly
where they came from or how theystarted.
Right.
And some of them have evenchanged, like.
(01:24):
In our lives over, you know,what people were talking about
as things change, but ultimatelylike each one has their own kind
of lesson or warning or mm-hmm.
Thing.
And it's just interesting kindof having like these modern day
fairy tales of a sort, kind ofwarning us Absolutely.
And so let's get into how doesthis stack up being the sequel
to one of your favoriteslashers?
Stephen (01:45):
So I was not as big of a fan when it first came out.
It was only after some time thatI revisited it and came to
really appreciate it.
It has an amazing cast.
The setups are a little moreforced this time since Amy is
doing the Urban Legends as amovie.
So it's not that the killer iskilling people using urban
legends, but that the charactersare learning about them and
(02:07):
filming urban legends and thecharacters taking advantage of
some of those scenarios.
But we'll get into all that.
Steve (02:14):
Yes.
For Urban Legend's.
Final Cut.
It is a 2000 slasher filmdirected by John Ottman in his
directorial debut, and iswritten by Paul Harris Boardman
and Scott Derickson, and isproduced by Gina Matthews, Neil
h Moritz, and Richard LukeRothschild.
And out of all those namesOttman is best known for his
(02:35):
collaborations with BrianSinger, while Derickson is known
for his horror hits like blackphone, which we covered.
Yep.
Sinister, which we love.
And the exorcism of Emily Rose,which is pretty good too.
And Gina Matthews is familiarbecause we talked about her
being responsible for one ofyour favorite Romcoms 13 going
on 30.
Yes.
And Ahman sought a wacky tonefor this film that was more
(02:57):
tongue in cheek than that of itspredecessor.
Do you think he succeeded?
Stephen (03:02):
Honestly, I feel it's less wacky than the original.
There's less camp, but it's alsoless serious.
So, In the first one, Natalie'struly terrified as to what is
happening all around her, andshe's using all of her free time
to solve it.
Everyone associated with herknew a hundred percent that she
believed her friends were beingmurdered with this.
(03:23):
Amy has moments of being scared,though she continues on with
making her movie and she'skeeping too much of it to
herself, which isn't totally herfault, so her figuring it out
feels like an island instead ofhaving more of the cast
involved.
But I blame that kind of on thesetup of needing more of her
(03:44):
filming to continue so that wehave more urban legends to see.
Because if everyone took herseriously, they'd be like, we're
not doing that.
Steve (03:53):
Yeah, I know.
And especially being that theoriginal one came out in 1998
and this one came out in 2000,do you think that perhaps two
years wasn't enough time to turnaround a good quality movie?
Stephen (04:07):
I.
I'm wondering how much thestudio got involved.
I would love to see like theoriginal screenplay and things
of it, because the bones of avery good movie
Steve (04:18):
are here.
Yes.
And so are the casts because weknow a lot of them.
It stars.
Jennifer Morrison is Amy.
Matthew Davis is Travis andTrevor Stark.
Hart Bachner as ProfessorSolomon Loretta Devine as Reece
and Joseph Lawrence's Graham.
Yes.
Now we love Jennifer Morrison asSheriff Swan from Once Upon a
Time, but are there any otherstandouts from this new round of
(04:40):
suspects in Cannon
Stephen (04:41):
fodder?
So Matthew Davis redeems himselfas a decent guy.
After being so awful as WarnerHunting Huntington III and
Legally Blonde.
But then I just realized, Ithink Illegal Blonde came out in
2001.
So he was a decent guy here andthen and into went the
Steve (04:57):
asshole.
Yeah.
Yes.
And Loretta Devine we love, Imean everything.
She be No wronging, the factthat she came back as race while
maybe compromising yourcharacter a little bit.
Yeah.
It was good to see her.
Stephen (05:08):
Yeah.
We have Joey Lawrence fromBlossom.
Yeah.
Handsome Mount as Black Boltfrom the mcu.
Anthony Anderson from Blackishand Jessica Cofield, also from
Legally Blonde.
Steve (05:19):
Yes.
And with the budget of 14million.
It was released on September22nd, 2000, and had a box office
of 38.6 million, making it aprofit, but not the splash that
its first one did.
Exactly.
Now the movie starts off.
With a plane flying throughheavy storms that's filled with
rowdy college students comingback from Hawaii after spring
break, but basically still drunkand horny.
(05:41):
Af.
Yeah, it's giving off majorfinal destination vibes where
you feed, know something'scoming, but it's very pre-final
Stephen (05:48):
destination.
Steve (05:49):
Yes, one couple heads into the bathroom to join the
Mile High Club.
When the girl sees the words,you're going down, written in
red on a mirror while he wasgoing down on her.
Get it.
I do.
The plane starts to descend andthe couple exits the bathroom to
find all the passengers dead andthe killer.
A flight attendant wielding aknife attacks them.
The couple runs into the cockpitto find both pilots dead while
(06:12):
the boy tries to hold the killerStewart off.
By holding the door closed, thegirl gets in the pilot's seat
and yells, mayday over therainbow, the radio not over the
rainbow, while attempting to flythe plane and suddenly.
Toby, the director yells, cut asthe camera pulls back and
reveals this whole thing as ahorror movie.
Filmed by a small college crewat Alpine University, Toby yells
(06:34):
at his crew for not getting theshot right as well as the blonde
girl.
Sandra Petr over her motivation.
Now, first off, would you watchthe killer flight attendant
movie?
Yes
Stephen (06:46):
I would.
If I could watch a movie aboutsnakes on a plane, I would watch
one about a killer flightattendant.
Steve (06:52):
Yes.
And while I may not be or haveever been a film student, does
it seem like.
Even like fancy collegecampuses, go all this out with
like fake airplanes.
Stephen (07:02):
And I, I think only film schools, I think any
regular school would not be, butAlpine University being strictly
a film school, I would say theyhave.
Lots of studios and props andthings.
Steve (07:15):
Cool.
Well, the next day, Amy, wholongs to write and direct her
own movie Someday, as doeseveryone at this college is in
the assembly with other filmstudents listening to the talk
of the Alfred Hitchcock filmAward and that the thesis film
projects are coming up while acreepy guy watches from the
lecture above.
Now, for a movie that didn't doso well, it features a lot of
(07:37):
familiar faces.
Any ones that you're happy tosee right off the bat?
Stephen (07:42):
Mainly her, just because of how much we loved
Once upon a time.
Yes.
And, you know, everybody and Igrew up watching Blossom, so
seeing Joey Lawrence alwaysmakes me happy so yeah,
Steve (07:54):
and they're in this like making this movie, so it's kinda
like creative writing.
Did you ever experiment withcreative writing before?
Stephen (08:02):
Well, yes I did.
I took some classes and ofcourse I have my never finished
novel that will forever be beingworked on.
What about you?
Did you ever write anythingcreatively?
Yes,
Steve (08:13):
I've had short spurts, but I realize that I don't have
the attention stand to make longnovels in my brain.
Quickly spirals into like.
Television arcs, and it's alwaysmore than I can follow through
on.
Stephen (08:25):
Well, walking back to her dorm after late night class,
Amy is given a ride by ReeceWilson.
Loretta Devine, the campussecurity guard.
The two of them talk about PamGreer and that they're both fans
of her movies.
Amy tells Reese that she has afilm thesis idea due, but she
can't think of a good story.
Reese tells her about a thingfrom a few years ago where about
(08:49):
a security guard at PendletonUniversity and a serial killer
that killed eight studentsthere.
But Amy's like, yeah, that's,that's an urban legend.
And Reese is like, Urban legend,my ass.
Steve (09:03):
Yeah.
And it really was a greateffective way, I feel like, to
recap the first movie, whilealso giving insight to what
happened afterwards with thecoverup, as well as, I mean,
it's more Loretta Dev Divines,so we can't say no to that.
Yes.
Now later, Amy Fit visits her,her film class teacher,
professor Solomon, and gives himher idea about making a film
about a killer who kills peoplebased on urban legends, and he
(09:25):
thinks it's a great idea.
Do you think like that would bea good, fun college assignment?
I think it would be.
I think it would be too, if youhad to choose an urban legend to
make your own spin on or likemake a movie out of, what would
it be?
So there
Stephen (09:37):
are two maybe Burning Jenny.
That one was from West Virginia.
And you could set it on a trainthat travels through the area or
set it in Harpers Ferry, WestVirginia, where the story
happened.
It would definitely be a ghoststory.
Either way you look at it.
Or maybe do it about DudleyTown, the Erie town in
Connecticut that people call thedark vortex.
(09:59):
If a visitor steals an artifactfrom the area that then they're
cursed, it could definitely dosomething with that as well as
the group having to go back andreturn the artifact, throw in a
little land of the little peoplevibe from Cincinnati, and I
think you've got a really goodsupernatural horror film.
Steve (10:16):
Yeah, I need to put more thought into this being that I
answered the question, but Idon't know.
I think it would be fun to likeupdate one of the older ones
that like we all kind of knowuntil like a new generation or
like taking, like having anurban legend, be more about like
social media technology andstuff like that.
Having it involved.
But yeah, I don't know.
Anyway, that evening, thatevening film student, Travis
(10:38):
Stark is in a local bar with hisgirlfriend Lisa, and they talk
about his films as Lisa orderstwo more drinks, someone slips a
pill in her drink.
Travis leaves to go work on histhesis movie, and Toby walks
over to Lisa to hit on her.
Lisa leaves telling him that hecan pay for the drinks.
She stumbles into the coat roomwhere an unseen person sneaks up
behind her and throws a plasticbag over her head.
(10:58):
Lisa wakes up sometime laterthat night in a bathtub full of
ice with a wound on her abdomenand sees one of her kidneys on a
plate nearby.
Even though it's not a kidneyfrom a human, it's a good kidney
that they had trimmed backbecause they couldn't.
Get a real human kidney.
Obviously,
Stephen (11:13):
Lisa sees someone in the other room of what appears
to be an abandoned building.
She crawls out of the tub andshuts the door, calling nine one
one on her cell phone, but theoperator, operator thinks it's a
prank call and hangs up on her.
Her attacker is alerted to herescape attempt, and Lisa tries
crawling out a window when theunseen person breaks in.
Pulls her back in by diggingtheir fingers into her surgery
(11:36):
wound.
And the attacker breaks thewindow and the window is slam
shut on Lisa's neck, beheadingher with her head just falling
outside, and then the co killertosses her useless kidney to the
neighbor's barking dog out
Steve (11:51):
there.
I worry that if someone threw ahuman kidney to Remy, that he
would eat it not knowing anybetter.
He totally would.
That's.
Disturbing.
By the way, first time throughthis movie, there was no such
thing as Lisa in the firstdraft, the sequence with Lisa,
Travis and Toby at the barshortly after her death, and the
death itself was a re-shoot.
(12:11):
It was filmed several monthsafter principal photography was
completed.
It was decided after the filmwas done that a death scene
needed to occur much earlier inthe film to add a sense of
danger.
That's why.
Lisa's never mentioned before orafter her disappearance or her
appearance.
Toby even had to wear a wigduring the sequence because he
had cut his hair significantlyafterwards for another role.
(12:32):
It actually
Stephen (12:32):
works really, really well because it sets up more of
Travis's singular focus on hismovie as well as Toby being a
creepy jealous also
Steve (12:43):
Ram.
Yes, and the kidney Heist isactually an urban legend that
picks up where the last movie.
Left off.
Yeah, because that was theunsuccessful one, but it
originated in the late eighties,but boomed in the nineties as
the internet and email chain.
An email blast Flourished.
Yep.
An email chain in 1998 told aversion of a story of a college
(13:04):
student who went to a party, wasdrugged in, his kidneys were
stolen to be sold on the blackmarket for$10,000 a piece where
everyone at the party like wasall involved in this.
And it was some giantconspiracy.
Leading the transplant programsacross the country, issuing
warnings and like disregardingthe fact that that's not how
science works.
That's not how donations ororgan transplants work and
(13:26):
trying to dispel that.
That's just a myth.
Stephen (13:29):
Honestly, the biggest part of that is that the kidney
was only worth$10,000.
I don't think that's enoughmoney for such an important
organ.
Steve (13:37):
Exactly.
But like it really is.
When I did my research, I waslike, remember we looked it up
and it wasn't
Stephen (13:41):
worth it.
No.
And.
I do remember when that wasgoing around because my parents
were like, don't put a drinkdown at a party.
No matter what it is, you eithertake it with you or you get a
new one when you come back fromthe ba because everyone was
concerned that someone was gonnaget drugged and have their
kidneys stolen.
And it, it's
Steve (13:59):
like a nice version of.
Avoid telling like youngerpeople, especially to avoid
drinks from strangers withouthaving to go right to the whole,
like, roofie you will be raped.
Right?
Like stories.
So I can tell, I can see wherethis kind of originated from as
like a lesson or a warningagainst, you know, social
practices of being uncarefulwith your drink, which I would
leave my drink everywhere hopingit would be drugged and it never
(14:20):
was.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I know it's okay.
The next day at lunch, Amy andSandra are discussing various
urban legends leading to thefollowing fun references.
There's
Stephen (14:30):
the student screaming at midnight.
Ah,
Steve (14:33):
don't worry.
I won't really scream.
Stephen (14:35):
Well, this movie references its origin being Hong
Kong.
Its Origin is actually fromFloss to Sweden, where every
evening around 10:00 PMstudents, individually or
collectively shop from Windows,balconies, and rooftops.
To act as a much needed safetyvalve and cry of angst for
students.
It is spread across beinginspired Hong Kong citizens to
(14:55):
shout from their windows everynight during the 2019, 2020 Hong
Kong protests.
And you know, then there was, Iguess you could say there's
something similar during thePandemic where everybody went
outside and applauded everyoneelse.
Yeah.
Steve (15:13):
And it took me a moment to remember the burrito with
roach eggs that hatch inside agirl until I, I read the story
and once you mentioned TacoBell, I feel like, did you hear
this?
Urban legends?
Oh yeah.
I was gonna say that a girl goesto the doctor due to her jaw
swelling only to learn.
She ingested a cockroach eggsfrom eating a taco bell taco and
had to remove a couple layers ofher inner mouth to get all the
(15:36):
eggs out.
And now she's suing Taco Bell.
This went viral via email asearly as March, 1998, but also
has a version where thishappened as a result of a paper
cut when licking envelopes.
Either way, that's not howscience works.
Stephen (15:50):
Nope.
And you can tell the next onetoo.
So you don't love
Steve (15:54):
the idea of a chicken pus sandwich.
That urban legend across highschool and college students in
the early nineties where a womangets a chicken sandwich with no
mayo.
Oh, you love mayo.
And she asks for no mayo butbites into it and has this odd
taste and sees this likemayonnaise, like substance.
So she goes up and says, Ididn't order it with Mayo.
And they're like, we didn't domayo.
(16:16):
And for whatever.
However, science later they findout that it was.
Not Mayo.
It was a tumor that the deadchicken had, which isn't how it
works because they diced chickenbeforehand and that would be
impossible.
But yes, we're done.
Steven.
You can undo that.
Stephen (16:36):
I had to.
Cover my ears cuz that one justgrosses me out so much.
I had problems even reading thatparagraph.
You're welcome.
I do not like food related urbanlegends.
I prefer horror to frighten me,not make me queasy.
Steve (16:50):
I.
There you go.
So I know what not to rewrite myIrv legend to be about.
Yes.
Now the next day Amy asks Travisif he can look at her approved
script when Amy tells somefellow students about her movie
and the humans can lick twolegend.
Toby pulls her aside and accusesher of stealing his horror genre
and says that no one will takethe Hitchcock award away from
(17:10):
him because he's earned it beinga conventionally attractive cis
white man with a rich daddy.
Yeah.
Privilege.
Yes.
Now, did you know this humanscan lick to Urban Legend
Stephen (17:22):
before?
Yeah.
Well, it was in one of my booksI read growing
Steve (17:25):
up.
Yes.
The Licked Hand is a deep cut ofan urban legend being found in
print as early as February,1982.
A very young girl is home alonefor the first time with only her
dog, and here is on the news.
A killer is on the loose.
She wakes up in the middle ofthe night to a scary dripping
sound from the bathroom, but sheputs her hand down by the bed
where her hand was licked, whichshe was confident was her dog
(17:47):
keeping her safe and goes backto bed.
In the morning, she finds herdead dog with humans can lick
too written in its blood.
And with that story, we're moreupset about the dead dog than we
are the slightly scared, butultimately safe girl.
Correct.
Of course.
Stephen (18:01):
Too many animals are harmed in urban legends and this
could have just been as scary ifshe had woken up and like found
the dog out in the hallway andher bedroom door closed.
And humans can lick too.
Written on the mirror.
Yeah, and I think it would'vebeen just as, Like just as
creepy.
Just as creepy.
The dog didn't need to die.
(18:22):
No.
Amy goes to see Travis who ishorribly upset because he got a
C minus on his thesis film andyou know, while she's trying to
commiserate with him, she alsoasked if he knows any
cinematographers on the set.
Three of the film student Crews,Stan Dirk and Sandra Faan
accident in which Sandra playsdead.
(18:43):
With some blood makeup on herforehead.
I love her for this.
Yeah.
After Amy describes the scene toSandra, the cinematographer,
Simon shows up with his camera.
As people are leaving for thenight, Sandra returns to the set
for her dorm room keys.
Someone sneaks into the studioand attaches a microphone to a
camera and approaches herquietly from behind.
(19:05):
As she's oblivious to what iscoming, she turns around and.
Steve (19:09):
Flash forward to the next day in the screening room.
Amy and her friends watch thelatest footage they shot.
Almost all of it's unusablebecause Sandra's a horrible
actress.
But the footage changes tofeature Sandra being chased and
killed by the unseen killer.
Really?
Well.
Yep.
Like she was a very good actressthere because she wasn't acting
right.
Amy thinks it's real, buteveryone else thinks it's
(19:30):
another one of her practicaljokes, though no one takes
credit for helping her film it.
So how would that be possible?
Now the, the urban legend ofhorror footage being real, I
feel like exists long before Iheard about it back, which was
with the Blair Witch Project.
Did you hear beforehand aboutlike, oh, this video or this
tape was found and it's a realmurder?
(19:51):
Maybe.
Stephen (19:52):
But Blair Witch was also my generation.
Yeah.
And there was even a documentaryon the sci-fi channel.
Or some channel like that.
As the Blair Witch was comingout where they had people
talking about the legend, theywere interviewing people in the
town, talking about other peoplethat have gone missing.
It made it seem very, very real.
If it weren't for some filmreviews talking about how the
(20:15):
movie was filmed, I think a lotmore people would've totally
watched it believing it wasreal, because I remember
everyone saying, Hey, Have youseen that There's a movie about
found, like they found thisfootage.
There's footage and
Steve (20:31):
it's a movie.
Now I, my mom wouldn't let mewatch it cuz I was young enough
for her to dictate what I couldwatch and not, and she wouldn't
let me watch it because sheheard it was real.
Stephen (20:38):
Like I was convinced it was real.
We watched the documentary and Iwas like, this is gonna be so
good.
And like in one of the things wehad convinced ourselves watching
the trailer, That you could seethe witch chasing them through
the woods as they
Steve (20:54):
ran.
Yes.
Now question with that though.
In that movie people died, doyou think you would be able to
enjoy a horror movie where youknow that the people were
actually being murdered?
Stephen (21:03):
So Mom w we told mom it was real and we didn't tell her
it was fake until like a goodtwo hours after we had seen it.
Yeah.
And she was horribly bothered.
She goes just to think.
Somebody's parents are watchingthat.
Like those poor kids' parentshave seen how they went missing
(21:23):
or died.
And at that point we were like,oh God, we have to tell her the
truth.
Steve (21:28):
Yeah.
I can't imagine being able toenjoy it if I know it was real,
but it was fun watching thatmovie about.
Horror movies that were real.
Yes, you did.
You showed me it and we had anepisode about it all
Stephen (21:41):
about evil.
And you can check out ourepisode with our exclusive
interview with Director PeachesChrist.
Steve (21:48):
Yes.
Now movie sets at night.
Sure.
Make a creepy setting for me.
Like I know that like any sortof movie about a movie or
anything meta like that, there'salways that big scene in the
movie set and I love it everytime.
Like I can't see enough versionsof that murder happening.
Is there any other setting thatlike you've seen a million times
but you'd happily see a millionmore?
Stephen (22:08):
Like when people are stuck inside during a big storm
and the power goes out?
I am always fine with thatsetup.
It always works for me.
Steve (22:20):
Yeah.
Now, later that day, Amy and theothers get news that Travis
killed himself.
Another film student namedGraham Joseph Lawrence talks to
Amy assuring her that Sandra'sprobably in Los Angeles filming
a bit part on the series er, andthen shaming her for having a
famous dead dad when she won'tsleep with him to get her film
made.
Men are gross.
(22:40):
Now, did you ever get anindecent proposal that you
turned
Stephen (22:43):
down?
Yes, I did in college and inCincinnati.
What was it?
No.
Okay.
Steve (22:50):
Nope.
All right.
Fine then.
Well, I never had when I turneddown.
No, just kidding.
Now Amy goes to the campus towerwhere it said that Travis shot
himself over his bad grades andfeelings of his film career
being over before it startedthere.
Amy has a run in with Travis',identical twin brother Trevor.
Also played by Matthew Davis.
Stephen (23:10):
Good casting to go ahead and cast the same person
as the twin.
Steve (23:14):
Yes.
He tells Amy that he thinksTravis didn't kill himself, but
he tells her not to tell anyonethat she saw him, which is
totally how innocent people act.
Yeah.
Now, but the location, fun fact,since the campus used as Alpine
University in the film, didn'thave an actual Bell Tower, 150
foot tower was built with anestimated$150,000 for this
(23:35):
movie.
So that's a big chunk of theirbudget.
All of the interiors were doneon a separate stage.
And the bell, which we see laterused in a death scene, is made
out of paper machete.
That's funny.
Machete, not machete.
I know what you
Stephen (23:48):
meant.
Now first time through, like youhave the whole Travis, Trevor
thing.
Did you suspect anything?
Was it too obvious or redherring for me?
I definitely thought somethingwas off.
Maybe it was Travis, maybeTrevor did it.
I watched a lot of soap operas,so maybe Travis didn't know he
(24:12):
had an identical twin that hadbeen put up for adoption, and
Trevor had grown up beingresentful of the child that
mommy and daddy had kept, andTrevor killed Travis and was
there to take his place andlike.
There was always that
Steve (24:26):
possibility.
Meanwhile, I spent the most ofthe movie feeling that like
Trevor, like that Travis didn'tkill himself.
And that like Trevor was Travisor something.
I, like, I some, something wasup and it, like, I knew that it
had, it had to be involved withthe plot somehow.
But I didn't think that he wasinnocent.
Stephen (24:45):
Yeah.
I never went with one was the
Steve (24:48):
other.
Yeah.
Now that evening Amy films ascene where the students
countdown to the new year andscream or countdown to midnight
and scream.
Yes.
They get the an on-camerafootage.
They need an Amy dismisseseveryone except
Stephen (25:03):
any of the volunteers that are gonna stay there to
have their screens recorded foraudio to add to the already shot
visuals.
Simon doesn't need to be thereanymore because there's no
visuals.
It's just an audio recording.
So he's outside smoking acigarette on his way home and
the killer wearing a fencingmask in this movie instead of
(25:24):
the, we don't know what wasunder the hood of the last one.
Yeah.
I like the fencing mask.
Yeah, it's nice.
Attacks him with his own cameraand beats him to death with it.
Amy, having heard the last partof the killer, Killing Simon
goes outside where Simon Simongot attacked, but the killer in
Simon's body are gone.
(25:44):
Amy notices a security cameraand she goes to Reese to ask to
borrow the tapes.
For the last hour or so with thecameras have
Steve (25:51):
recorded.
Now you gotta admit timing yourkill for a time.
You know, everyone around you isgonna be screaming as a very
good plan, but.
I mean, I can't imagine stayingup till midnight to scream.
If I did in college, it would'vebeen more for like sexy time
screams cuz it was hard beingable to have some privacy back
then.
I also
Stephen (26:10):
love that the killer believed he had a full minute to
do the killing because he knewof the urban legend.
Yeah, but aim, you can see onAmy's watch that she stops
recording the audio screamsafter 43 seconds.
Which is how she was able tohear the last part of the
murder, and when she watches thetapes later, the killer finishes
(26:30):
the murder at exactly 1201.
Yes.
So he was planning for that full60 seconds.
It's that 17 seconds that gotAmy onto him.
Steve (26:40):
Yes.
Not like anyone believes her.
No, because Amy Barrs the tapefrom Reese and is watching it in
the studio where she sees Simonkilled by the hooded fence mask
killer.
The killer appears in the creepymask and breaks into the studio,
but she locks the door to thebooth.
He breaks through the glasswindow thingy and Amy's chased
through the building to the dockwhere she dives into a sewer
(27:01):
pipe while running through thesewer tunnel.
Amy finds Reese and the two ofthem go back to the recording
studio, but the tapes are gone.
Reece is skeptical to Amy'sclaims about being attacked and
also says she can't do anythingwithout evidence.
Now I can deal with wacky campand like massaging plot holes,
smooth things around, but likein what world does like Reece
survive the first movie whereshe was literally shot and like,
(27:23):
oh, considered basically dead.
Like she only survived becauseshe's Loretta freaking divine.
Like I.
How would she hear that?
Like something like this couldbe happening again and not take
it seriously?
Stephen (27:34):
Yeah, that's my biggest issue with the movie.
Reese should have immediately100% believed what Amy was
saying.
I don't buy her being a skeptic,not after Pendleton.
Like that was one of the partsof the script that could have
and should have been different.
Different, yep.
(27:55):
So the next morning, Amysecretly meets with Trevor
again, where she tells him, Thatshe thinks that Sandra and Simon
are dead.
But Trevor tells her that hecan't go to the police where he
has a bad relationship withauthorities in the past and he
doesn't wanna draw the attentionand they won't believe him
either.
And Amy thinks the killer mightbe one of the students up for
the Hitchcock award.
(28:16):
Now,
Steve (28:16):
I don't think it's a spoiler cuz I don't think it
happens, but we never find outwhat this criminal past is that
he's so a afraid of the policeis.
Do we?
No, we do
Stephen (28:24):
not.
I
Steve (28:24):
mean, it's probably make something up
Stephen (28:25):
for me.
He got involved with sellingdrugs.
Okay.
And like the one brother thatwas so focused on making
something of himself and theother was a screw off who was
doing and selling drugs.
Steve (28:39):
Now in terms of motive winning award is passable, I
feel.
But do you prefer personalmotives like this or
interpersonal motives?
Like the first one where it wasall tied back to something
Stephen (28:48):
she did.
So I do think it's more thanjust the award.
I think it goes along.
With what it is a guaranteedHollywood career.
We've seen in movies like Screamthree, what people will do to
make it Big, r i p, Sidney'smom.
But yeah, the motivation is abit weaker.
There are ways it could havebeen fixed easily enough though
as I said, and they do tweak ita little bit.
(29:09):
They tweak it a little bit laterand that helps.
But I maybe would've like morepeople besides.
Just Toby and Simon, or notSimon, Toby and Travis like
being gung ho, like maybe theyall could have been Type A
personalities so that, you know,more people would've been
(29:32):
really.
Up for it because some of thepeople were just like, I'm in
film school.
Yeah.
Steve (29:37):
Now Amy takes the run to go through suspects and
theories, so that's a good timeto share.
Who were you thinking it wasthis time around?
I was totally on Trevor beinghis brother or something weird
with that.
Yeah.
I mean, why
Stephen (29:49):
not?
Toby, he's creepy.
There's Kevin, the PA that isoverlooked and poorly treated in
person in every scene that he isin.
And Graham who.
Seems like now that Travis isgone, the one that's most.
Hungry, determined and hungrybecause he needs to be famous
for
Steve (30:09):
Daddy.
Yes.
Now that evening Amy andcolleague Vanessa, the booms
operator on the film who clearlyhas a crush on the straight Amy
Head to ride Mary Miners thelocation of the tunnel of Terra
Carnival ride scene where theurban legend has railed up,
bought dead bodies in thecarnival ride.
Stan and Dick arrived there tosit up the bodies and Amy asked
(30:33):
Graham why he brought along theodd pa.
Kevin Graham is upset that Amyis pulling a power trip in front
of everyone and we leave.
Amy sees Trevor watching themfrom a tree nods to him and
tells everyone that they canleave to get something to eat.
When Stan goes off into thetunnel to fix more lights, the
killer hits him on the head andelectrocutes him with a sliced
(30:53):
cable.
Next, the killer attacks Dirkand pushes him against the
control box.
Electrocuting him the rides.
The rail car stops with Amyinside and she walks the rest of
the way.
Amy finds Dirk's dead body andis chased by the killer to the
entrance where Reese is waiting.
Again, she ventures into thetunnel, but the killers fled.
The police arrive and carry awaythe dead.
(31:13):
Stan and Dirk, while they takeAmy away for questioning.
Now, in all my theme parkexperiences, I've never heard
of, like the whole dead bodiesbeing in the ride thing.
Did you?
Yeah.
So
Stephen (31:24):
there's an urban legend of a haunted house ride at
Camden Park in West Virginia.
It's one step up from acarnival, but it's like a
permanent carnival.
So the urban legend stated thatthe ride was like, because it's
West Virginia has to shut downfor the winter.
(31:44):
And so like during the fall andwinter the copper hits, snakes
went in there and had a lot ofbabies.
And so come springtime when itopens, people are riding through
and the first people coming outof the haunted house ride.
They're all dead and people seeall these like they'd been
bitten to death by all thecopperhead snakes.
(32:05):
Yeah.
And so that was a big urbanlegend thing.
And a lot of people wouldn't goon the haunted house ride.
There, I don't know if youremember we watched a movie
called The House is OctoberBuilt.
Steve (32:17):
Yeah, I do remember
Stephen (32:18):
that.
Yep.
And in one of the opening thingsof it where they're talking
about Urban legends and thingsrelated to haunted houses and
stuff.
They actually show a clip of thehaunted ride from Camden Park on
there, and I was like, see, itdid make it further than just
West
Steve (32:36):
Virginia.
There you go.
And also, would you be able togo out and like film this whole
scene if you were chased by amurderer the night before?
Can
Stephen (32:47):
we talk about how Amy was chased by Hiller the night
before and she feels safe enoughto be alone outside, whether
Trevor was watching or not,because he was in the woods, 50
to a hundred feet away or more?
Like someone could pop up behindher and at this point she should
have told more people about hertheories.
Like no one is wondering whySimon didn't show up for this
(33:09):
shoot.
Like what was her excuse forneeding a new director of
photography?
And if she's really scared andthey are setting this trap, like
have more
Steve (33:20):
fail
Stephen (33:20):
safes in place.
Yeah.
Don't send everyone away.
Like was that like, so thatthere's less potential victims
or I.
Poor planning.
Yeah, it just like, that's oneof the areas of the scripture.
I was like, this needed help.
Steve (33:34):
Yes.
And Reece keeps showing up atthe most convenient times to the
point where it almost feltsuspicious to me.
Now, I would never want to seeLoretta Divine be a murderer,
but I was remembering like, Iwas like, oh God, they're not
gonna do this, are they?
Because like, I think part of itwas her pa bad character
writing.
Yeah.
But I was like, something's upwith her and it just feels
weird.
Like no,
Stephen (33:54):
it's one of those like, I never ever thought that it
might be recent.
Just like they may have made herskeptical of Amy.
Yeah, but it's not in hercharacter
Steve (34:05):
to do this.
Yeah.
Now, what happens the next day?
The next
Stephen (34:08):
day, Trevor meets with Amy in a room where he tells her
that he followed Graham, but helost him the previous night and
can't rule him out being akiller.
They lie down together on Amy'sbed where Amy falls asleep and
she has an intimate dream of herand Trevor having sex when
suddenly Trevor stabs her andAmy wakes up in the bed alone.
Have
Steve (34:28):
you ever had a dream where I murdered you?
No.
I don't think I've had a dreamwhere you murder me either.
Well, that's good.
That's good.
All right.
Now my biggest reason for hopingGraham wasn't the killer was
because I was hoping the killerwould murder him gracefully.
Just
Stephen (34:42):
for the record.
Yeah, that tracks.
He's not a nice person anddefinitely the frat boy of this
film.
I also believe that Trevor'sdoing some gaslighting on Amy,
making her rely only on him,keeping her from opening up to
her friends.
Even Edward Cullen would look atthis and be like, dude, that's a
bit much.
Steve (35:00):
Or he'd be taking notes.
But yeah, I definitely feel likeall the men in this movie are
horrible.
Yeah.
Now Amy sees a light on in thetower and finds Vanessa who says
she got Amy's note to meet her.
There.
Amy replies that she didn't sendany note.
When a dummy falls on the table,realizing they've been set up,
Amy grabs Vanessa and the twogirls run up to the tower,
(35:20):
followed by the killer withoutever telling Vanessa that
there's a killer or why theyshould be running from this
person.
They hide in her room where thedoor opens and the killer grabs
Vanessa, but leaves Amy lockedin the room.
Amy finds herself trapped withthe corpses of Sandra and Simon
the cameraman, and breaks downthe door only to find dead
Vanessa hanging from the papermache tower Bell.
Yeah.
(35:40):
Amy runs outside where Reesesees her and begins to follow
her.
Now I don't really know of anurban legend.
I couldn't find one on Googlingabout, like the past love note
or, yeah.
I don't think it is one.
But like, did you ever have anissue or like a, a mystery like
that or someone forged a note orfound a note?
So
Stephen (35:58):
I, it was also a mistaken apartment.
Mm-hmm.
Because the note was left at mydoor, but it was actually for
the apartment across the hall.
And I was really confused by thecontent and not knowing the
handwriting and things.
And it wasn't made out toJessica.
It was just like written withoutlike, dear Jessica, it was just
written out.
I was like, I don't get this.
(36:20):
And it wasn't signed and like,it wasn't until like we were
talking about, I was talking toher and I was like, I got this
note.
And she goes, I know who that'sfrom.
And I was like,
Steve (36:34):
Thank like, so that's the close.
At least.
That was confusing.
I mean, I remember back in theseventh or eighth grade when my
friends and I were all assholes,we thought it'd be fun to like
forge love notes pretending thatwe were like confessing our love
to someone like, but like wewould write it as someone else.
Unfortunate people.
Unfortunate people.
We would send them love notesfrom other unfortunate people
and try and make loveconnections because we had the
best intentions and weren'tbeing asshole children.
(36:55):
I'm sure you weren't.
Stephen (36:56):
Yes.
Steve (36:58):
Growth.
Stephen (36:59):
Yeah.
Amy finds Trevor takes her tothe library.
He tells her that in his owninvestigation, all the people
that had worked on the thesisfilm, the gods of men or his
brother's film are all dead.
They watched the a very bad filmand at the end of it, Amy
notices a splice and says thatit's not Travis Travis's film.
(37:21):
It's his credits, but not hismovie.
Someone has taken his movieplans to pass it off as their
own.
And there's only one personstill living that worked on
Travis's film, Amy and TrevorWale.
Toby, as he is driving to thecampus by flagging him down and
threatening him with a gun asanother urban legend, the guy
picking up a dead hitchhiker,they take him to the studio set
(37:44):
and handcuff him to a chair andaccuse him of being the killer
for, he's the only survivingcrew member that worked on
Travis's
Steve (37:51):
film.
Yes.
And when they go to find Toby,am I the only one who was like,
who's Toby?
Yes.
Oh, okay.
Stephen (37:57):
I forgot about him.
My biggest thing is that afterthe harrowing events at the
Tower with Vanessa's death, themsitting through the movie is too
calm.
Like maybe have found a way toput this scene first, or at
least the part of them watchingthe movie and figuring out that
it isn't Travis's movie first.
Then have them split up Amy tofind Vanessa and Trevor to find
(38:20):
Toby like the last two people.
And Amy finds a note on her doorfrom Vanessa that she's at the
tower, and then the tower sceneplays out and then Amy comes to
the set where Trevor already hasToby tied up and set it up in a
way that we start to haveserious doubts about whether we
should trust Trevor.
Well, you know, that's how tohave, how I would've done it to
(38:42):
make Amy seem less, that shedoesn't care that her friend
just was
Steve (38:46):
hung.
Okay, so note to self, if one ofthe lesbians mysteriously dies,
were not going home and watchinga movie.
Correct.
Okay.
Good to know.
Yep.
Now just then, professor Solomonarrives where Trevor acting as
Travis says that Toby stole hisfilm.
Toby reminds Travis that Travisdid the sound on his own and
merely gave the credit to Toby,who has never seen the film.
(39:07):
Suddenly, Solomon reveals thatthis means that he gave Toby an
A for nothing and pulls out agun and shoots him.
Only to realize that Trevorisn't actually Travis.
Now, did you see this coming?
I did not.
Stephen (39:19):
Not even a little bit.
But it does start to make moresense, especially with some of
the things that come up.
Is it bad
Steve (39:27):
that my first thought was like, this is a very big
overreaction for forging agrade, and I didn't realize that
this meant that he was a killeruntil he started doing his
backstory.
I just thought this teacher tooklike plagiarism and faking work
very seriously.
I can't
Stephen (39:41):
believe you did that.
Damn you.
No.
Why would you go around with agun?
Steve (39:45):
I don't know, but I figured it out real quickly cuz
he g gives us all theexplanation that we need real
soon.
Yeah.
Trevor goes for the gun and Amyruns Solomon knocks Trevor aside
and holds him at gunpoint.
The professor tells Amy thatmany years ago, her father was
one of the judges who cast thedeciding vote against him for
the Hitchcock Award in filmschool.
Leaving him to be a horriblecollege has been teacher his
(40:07):
entire life, and it's all herdaddy's fault and not his own
for his abilities.
Yeah.
Solomon explains that.
When Amy came into his office onthat day with her idea about
making a horror movie about anurban legend serial killer, he
was like, that's a great idea.
I'm gonna kill everyone whoworked on Travis's.
Film and frame her for thekilling so I could steal his
film and submit it as my own.
(40:28):
No problems with that plot.
Yeah, Graham Go comes out ofhiding and swings a chair at
Solomon, but it's a prop chairand falls apart on impact.
The four of them battle over allthe different guns with Graham
getting shot in the back withwhat we can only hope is a fatal
wound.
So Reece
Stephen (40:43):
arrives and points her gun at all of them.
Unsure of who is the killer.
She makes Amy kick the gun away.
Okay, everyone out of the creepyass graveyard, including the
undead because she thinks it'sTravis feigning Innocence,
Solomon and Reese, that Amy'sthe killer because Reese saw her
running from the tower a fewhours ago when Vanessa was
(41:05):
killed.
Reece points her gun at theprofessor saying that she never
told anyone that she even sawAmy running from the tower.
And the only way that Solomonknows.
Is if he was there, Solomonpunches Reese and she punches
him back.
And then during the strugglethey knock over an entire milk
crate of prop guns and the propgun gets mixed in with the real
(41:27):
guns.
Amy, Trevor and Solomon eachcome up with a gun.
Trevor.
Trevor gets a click of a fake,and then Amy Bates Solomon with
those who can't do teach Jab,and he gets a click as well.
And Amy has the gold trim gunthat Reese had shown her
earlier.
And, but she can't do it.
She can't shoot him, and so shetries to pass the gun to Reese
(41:49):
and she's like, just give it tome baby.
And Solomon jumps on her, andthen he and Amy are struggling
over the gun, and then he getsshot during the struggle.
Reece then places him underarrest as Amy and Trevor
embrace.
Graham also finds that Toby isstill alive and he will survive.
Not that we care.
Steve (42:10):
Yes.
So they made it somewhatpersonal with her dead dad's
vote against Solomon.
But was the reveal worth thebread?
I can't even call it breadcrumbs.
Wasn't there just like one lineabout her dad?
Yeah.
Stephen (42:20):
Well, no, like we talked about him earlier about
how, you know, famous and da dada.
It has the bones of a very, verygood movie here.
It needed some tweaking.
And maybe I do give the filmmore leeway because I see how
good it could have been.
And it's not like theperformances are bad.
All the acting is good.
Yeah.
(42:40):
All the acting is good.
The scenes are great.
The atmosphere is nice, like.
There's so much good with thismovie.
Yes.
Steve (42:50):
Now, some months later, Trevor is accepting the Alfred
Hitchcock award on behalf of hisof his Late Brother's film.
When the Creepy PA Kevin perchedhigh atop a walkway, attempts to
shoot Trevor as he's acceptingthe award and gets shot by
Reece, Kevin falls off thescaffolding into a large airbag
below, as Amy yells, cut.
It's the last scene of Amy'svery first independently funded
(43:13):
movie titled Urban Legends withher directing Trevor in the
leading role.
Toby is the assistant directorand most of the crew in acting
parts with Graham talking on acell phone nearby as Amy's
manager to discuss her film'supcoming completion for a future
premiere.
Yeah.
Now, if you survived a tragedylike this, would you pull an Amy
or Gail Weathers and make amovie or book about it, or would
(43:34):
you be trying to move on?
Stephen (43:35):
Since they're creative people, I can definitely see
them making a movie or a book aspart of the healing process.
For me, it would be therapy,meditation, and silent retreats.
What about you?
Steve (43:47):
I would probably write a book if I could make money off
of it.
Yeah, there's no, I would, yeah,monetize my pain for sure.
In a
Stephen (43:55):
final scene set, another few months later, a TV
set showing Amy's complete filmwas turned off by a nurse while
Daz and near catatonic Solomon,now confined to a wheelchair
from his gunshot wound isresiding in an asylum.
I just love that film, don'tyou?
I think we have a lot in common.
(44:17):
Solomon is wheeled away back tohis room by a familiar looking
nurse who is Brenda Bates, theWild-Eyed Killer from the first
urban legend movie and theinspiration for this whole
thing.
How much did you love that?
So much?
Like it's kind of like at theend of the gym movie and then
the misfits showing up in thepost credit scene.
(44:39):
I was like, That helped he alot.
Having Brenda come back as thishelped a lot,
Steve (44:47):
what would you, would you have liked to watch a third
movie where it was the two ofthem teaming up?
Stephen (44:52):
I would definitely like to see Brenda and Reece return.
I would be okay with Solomonthere as long as like Brenda
double crosses him and kills himand.
Like he's being all smug andthen she like pushes him out a
window or something.
I think that'd be amazing.
Yes.
Sounds good.
And Reese needs to believe thecrazy ass white girl the first
(45:14):
time she tells her something'swrong.
Steve (45:16):
Yes, she does.
All right, final
Stephen (45:18):
thoughts?
It's really fun.
It has, you know, some issuesthat we've talked about.
But overall it's a funcontinuation.
It's not a bad movie by anystretch of the imagination.
So yeah.
This is the last one in theseries that is a slasher.
The next one is Supernatural.
Wow.
Steve (45:38):
We'll be sure to dive into that one next week.
But in the meantime, we'd loveto hear your thoughts on Urban
Legends Final Cut.
You can do that by emailing usat happy life pod gmail.com,
Stephen (45:49):
or you can get in touch with us on the socials, whether
that is Facebook, Instagram, orTwitter at Happy Life
Steve (45:57):
Pod.
And until next time, everybody,stay happy.
Hello, returning Happys and new listeners.
This is Steve Bennett Martin.
And this is Steven
Stephen (00:07):
Martin Bennett, and welcome to a
Steve (00:09):
lifetime of happiness.
The podcast where we take you onour journey through some of the
movies, shows, and other bits ofpop culture that are helping to
keep us happy while hopefullybring a smile to your face along
the way.
And
Stephen (00:19):
we're spending July covering one of my favorite
horror trilogies, urban Legends,and next up is Urban Legends.
Final cut.
Steve (00:28):
Yes.
But before we get into how thisstacks up to one of your
favorite movies of all time whydo urban legends in general make
you happy?
Stephen (00:37):
I love them because they remind me of the scary
stories to tell in the darkbooks from when you were little
or stories that you would tellaround a sleepover trying to
scare each other before bed.
They're fun and they're creepy,and everybody knows at least
one.
And there's always that story.
(00:58):
They're like, Well, I know thatthat one's fake, but there's
this one in my hometown.
Steve (01:03):
Yes.
Yeah.
And, and I love with that how itbecomes almost like our, our
generation's version of folklorethat you have these oral
traditions that are passed onfrom person to person, where
even in the age of the internet,you're never really sure exactly
where they came from or how theystarted.
Right.
And some of them have evenchanged, like.
(01:24):
In our lives over, you know,what people were talking about
as things change, but ultimatelylike each one has their own kind
of lesson or warning or mm-hmm.
Thing.
And it's just interesting kindof having like these modern day
fairy tales of a sort, kind ofwarning us Absolutely.
And so let's get into how doesthis stack up being the sequel
to one of your favoriteslashers?
Stephen (01:45):
So I was not as big of a fan when it first came out.
It was only after some time thatI revisited it and came to
really appreciate it.
It has an amazing cast.
The setups are a little moreforced this time since Amy is
doing the Urban Legends as amovie.
So it's not that the killer iskilling people using urban
legends, but that the charactersare learning about them and
(02:07):
filming urban legends and thecharacters taking advantage of
some of those scenarios.
But we'll get into all that.
Steve (02:14):
Yes.
For Urban Legend's.
Final Cut.
It is a 2000 slasher filmdirected by John Ottman in his
directorial debut, and iswritten by Paul Harris Boardman
and Scott Derickson, and isproduced by Gina Matthews, Neil
h Moritz, and Richard LukeRothschild.
And out of all those namesOttman is best known for his
(02:35):
collaborations with BrianSinger, while Derickson is known
for his horror hits like blackphone, which we covered.
Yep.
Sinister, which we love.
And the exorcism of Emily Rose,which is pretty good too.
And Gina Matthews is familiarbecause we talked about her
being responsible for one ofyour favorite Romcoms 13 going
on 30.
Yes.
And Ahman sought a wacky tonefor this film that was more
(02:57):
tongue in cheek than that of itspredecessor.
Do you think he succeeded?
Stephen (03:02):
Honestly, I feel it's less wacky than the original.
There's less camp, but it's alsoless serious.
So, In the first one, Natalie'struly terrified as to what is
happening all around her, andshe's using all of her free time
to solve it.
Everyone associated with herknew a hundred percent that she
believed her friends were beingmurdered with this.
(03:23):
Amy has moments of being scared,though she continues on with
making her movie and she'skeeping too much of it to
herself, which isn't totally herfault, so her figuring it out
feels like an island instead ofhaving more of the cast
involved.
But I blame that kind of on thesetup of needing more of her
(03:44):
filming to continue so that wehave more urban legends to see.
Because if everyone took herseriously, they'd be like, we're
not doing that.
Steve (03:53):
Yeah, I know.
And especially being that theoriginal one came out in 1998
and this one came out in 2000,do you think that perhaps two
years wasn't enough time to turnaround a good quality movie?
Stephen (04:07):
I.
I'm wondering how much thestudio got involved.
I would love to see like theoriginal screenplay and things
of it, because the bones of avery good movie
Steve (04:18):
are here.
Yes.
And so are the casts because weknow a lot of them.
It stars.
Jennifer Morrison is Amy.
Matthew Davis is Travis andTrevor Stark.
Hart Bachner as ProfessorSolomon Loretta Devine as Reece
and Joseph Lawrence's Graham.
Yes.
Now we love Jennifer Morrison asSheriff Swan from Once Upon a
Time, but are there any otherstandouts from this new round of
(04:40):
suspects in Cannon
Stephen (04:41):
fodder?
So Matthew Davis redeems himselfas a decent guy.
After being so awful as WarnerHunting Huntington III and
Legally Blonde.
But then I just realized, Ithink Illegal Blonde came out in
2001.
So he was a decent guy here andthen and into went the
Steve (04:57):
asshole.
Yeah.
Yes.
And Loretta Devine we love, Imean everything.
She be No wronging, the factthat she came back as race while
maybe compromising yourcharacter a little bit.
Yeah.
It was good to see her.
Stephen (05:08):
Yeah.
We have Joey Lawrence fromBlossom.
Yeah.
Handsome Mount as Black Boltfrom the mcu.
Anthony Anderson from Blackishand Jessica Cofield, also from
Legally Blonde.
Steve (05:19):
Yes.
And with the budget of 14million.
It was released on September22nd, 2000, and had a box office
of 38.6 million, making it aprofit, but not the splash that
its first one did.
Exactly.
Now the movie starts off.
With a plane flying throughheavy storms that's filled with
rowdy college students comingback from Hawaii after spring
break, but basically still drunkand horny.
(05:41):
Af.
Yeah, it's giving off majorfinal destination vibes where
you feed, know something'scoming, but it's very pre-final
Stephen (05:48):
destination.
Steve (05:49):
Yes, one couple heads into the bathroom to join the
Mile High Club.
When the girl sees the words,you're going down, written in
red on a mirror while he wasgoing down on her.
Get it.
I do.
The plane starts to descend andthe couple exits the bathroom to
find all the passengers dead andthe killer.
A flight attendant wielding aknife attacks them.
The couple runs into the cockpitto find both pilots dead while
(06:12):
the boy tries to hold the killerStewart off.
By holding the door closed, thegirl gets in the pilot's seat
and yells, mayday over therainbow, the radio not over the
rainbow, while attempting to flythe plane and suddenly.
Toby, the director yells, cut asthe camera pulls back and
reveals this whole thing as ahorror movie.
Filmed by a small college crewat Alpine University, Toby yells
(06:34):
at his crew for not getting theshot right as well as the blonde
girl.
Sandra Petr over her motivation.
Now, first off, would you watchthe killer flight attendant
movie?
Yes
Stephen (06:46):
I would.
If I could watch a movie aboutsnakes on a plane, I would watch
one about a killer flightattendant.
Steve (06:52):
Yes.
And while I may not be or haveever been a film student, does
it seem like.
Even like fancy collegecampuses, go all this out with
like fake airplanes.
Stephen (07:02):
And I, I think only film schools, I think any
regular school would not be, butAlpine University being strictly
a film school, I would say theyhave.
Lots of studios and props andthings.
Steve (07:15):
Cool.
Well, the next day, Amy, wholongs to write and direct her
own movie Someday, as doeseveryone at this college is in
the assembly with other filmstudents listening to the talk
of the Alfred Hitchcock filmAward and that the thesis film
projects are coming up while acreepy guy watches from the
lecture above.
Now, for a movie that didn't doso well, it features a lot of
(07:37):
familiar faces.
Any ones that you're happy tosee right off the bat?
Stephen (07:42):
Mainly her, just because of how much we loved
Once upon a time.
Yes.
And, you know, everybody and Igrew up watching Blossom, so
seeing Joey Lawrence alwaysmakes me happy so yeah,
Steve (07:54):
and they're in this like making this movie, so it's kinda
like creative writing.
Did you ever experiment withcreative writing before?
Stephen (08:02):
Well, yes I did.
I took some classes and ofcourse I have my never finished
novel that will forever be beingworked on.
What about you?
Did you ever write anythingcreatively?
Yes,
Steve (08:13):
I've had short spurts, but I realize that I don't have
the attention stand to make longnovels in my brain.
Quickly spirals into like.
Television arcs, and it's alwaysmore than I can follow through
on.
Stephen (08:25):
Well, walking back to her dorm after late night class,
Amy is given a ride by ReeceWilson.
Loretta Devine, the campussecurity guard.
The two of them talk about PamGreer and that they're both fans
of her movies.
Amy tells Reese that she has afilm thesis idea due, but she
can't think of a good story.
Reese tells her about a thingfrom a few years ago where about
(08:49):
a security guard at PendletonUniversity and a serial killer
that killed eight studentsthere.
But Amy's like, yeah, that's,that's an urban legend.
And Reese is like, Urban legend,my ass.
Steve (09:03):
Yeah.
And it really was a greateffective way, I feel like, to
recap the first movie, whilealso giving insight to what
happened afterwards with thecoverup, as well as, I mean,
it's more Loretta Dev Divines,so we can't say no to that.
Yes.
Now later, Amy Fit visits her,her film class teacher,
professor Solomon, and gives himher idea about making a film
about a killer who kills peoplebased on urban legends, and he
(09:25):
thinks it's a great idea.
Do you think like that would bea good, fun college assignment?
I think it would be.
I think it would be too, if youhad to choose an urban legend to
make your own spin on or likemake a movie out of, what would
it be?
So there
Stephen (09:37):
are two maybe Burning Jenny.
That one was from West Virginia.
And you could set it on a trainthat travels through the area or
set it in Harpers Ferry, WestVirginia, where the story
happened.
It would definitely be a ghoststory.
Either way you look at it.
Or maybe do it about DudleyTown, the Erie town in
Connecticut that people call thedark vortex.
(09:59):
If a visitor steals an artifactfrom the area that then they're
cursed, it could definitely dosomething with that as well as
the group having to go back andreturn the artifact, throw in a
little land of the little peoplevibe from Cincinnati, and I
think you've got a really goodsupernatural horror film.
Steve (10:16):
Yeah, I need to put more thought into this being that I
answered the question, but Idon't know.
I think it would be fun to likeupdate one of the older ones
that like we all kind of knowuntil like a new generation or
like taking, like having anurban legend, be more about like
social media technology andstuff like that.
Having it involved.
But yeah, I don't know.
Anyway, that evening, thatevening film student, Travis
(10:38):
Stark is in a local bar with hisgirlfriend Lisa, and they talk
about his films as Lisa orderstwo more drinks, someone slips a
pill in her drink.
Travis leaves to go work on histhesis movie, and Toby walks
over to Lisa to hit on her.
Lisa leaves telling him that hecan pay for the drinks.
She stumbles into the coat roomwhere an unseen person sneaks up
behind her and throws a plasticbag over her head.
(10:58):
Lisa wakes up sometime laterthat night in a bathtub full of
ice with a wound on her abdomenand sees one of her kidneys on a
plate nearby.
Even though it's not a kidneyfrom a human, it's a good kidney
that they had trimmed backbecause they couldn't.
Get a real human kidney.
Obviously,
Stephen (11:13):
Lisa sees someone in the other room of what appears
to be an abandoned building.
She crawls out of the tub andshuts the door, calling nine one
one on her cell phone, but theoperator, operator thinks it's a
prank call and hangs up on her.
Her attacker is alerted to herescape attempt, and Lisa tries
crawling out a window when theunseen person breaks in.
Pulls her back in by diggingtheir fingers into her surgery
(11:36):
wound.
And the attacker breaks thewindow and the window is slam
shut on Lisa's neck, beheadingher with her head just falling
outside, and then the co killertosses her useless kidney to the
neighbor's barking dog out
Steve (11:51):
there.
I worry that if someone threw ahuman kidney to Remy, that he
would eat it not knowing anybetter.
He totally would.
That's.
Disturbing.
By the way, first time throughthis movie, there was no such
thing as Lisa in the firstdraft, the sequence with Lisa,
Travis and Toby at the barshortly after her death, and the
death itself was a re-shoot.
(12:11):
It was filmed several monthsafter principal photography was
completed.
It was decided after the filmwas done that a death scene
needed to occur much earlier inthe film to add a sense of
danger.
That's why.
Lisa's never mentioned before orafter her disappearance or her
appearance.
Toby even had to wear a wigduring the sequence because he
had cut his hair significantlyafterwards for another role.
(12:32):
It actually
Stephen (12:32):
works really, really well because it sets up more of
Travis's singular focus on hismovie as well as Toby being a
creepy jealous also
Steve (12:43):
Ram.
Yes, and the kidney Heist isactually an urban legend that
picks up where the last movie.
Left off.
Yeah, because that was theunsuccessful one, but it
originated in the late eighties,but boomed in the nineties as
the internet and email chain.
An email blast Flourished.
Yep.
An email chain in 1998 told aversion of a story of a college
(13:04):
student who went to a party, wasdrugged in, his kidneys were
stolen to be sold on the blackmarket for$10,000 a piece where
everyone at the party like wasall involved in this.
And it was some giantconspiracy.
Leading the transplant programsacross the country, issuing
warnings and like disregardingthe fact that that's not how
science works.
That's not how donations ororgan transplants work and
(13:26):
trying to dispel that.
That's just a myth.
Stephen (13:29):
Honestly, the biggest part of that is that the kidney
was only worth$10,000.
I don't think that's enoughmoney for such an important
organ.
Steve (13:37):
Exactly.
But like it really is.
When I did my research, I waslike, remember we looked it up
and it wasn't
Stephen (13:41):
worth it.
No.
And.
I do remember when that wasgoing around because my parents
were like, don't put a drinkdown at a party.
No matter what it is, you eithertake it with you or you get a
new one when you come back fromthe ba because everyone was
concerned that someone was gonnaget drugged and have their
kidneys stolen.
And it, it's
Steve (13:59):
like a nice version of.
Avoid telling like youngerpeople, especially to avoid
drinks from strangers withouthaving to go right to the whole,
like, roofie you will be raped.
Right?
Like stories.
So I can tell, I can see wherethis kind of originated from as
like a lesson or a warningagainst, you know, social
practices of being uncarefulwith your drink, which I would
leave my drink everywhere hopingit would be drugged and it never
(14:20):
was.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I know it's okay.
The next day at lunch, Amy andSandra are discussing various
urban legends leading to thefollowing fun references.
There's
Stephen (14:30):
the student screaming at midnight.
Ah,
Steve (14:33):
don't worry.
I won't really scream.
Stephen (14:35):
Well, this movie references its origin being Hong
Kong.
Its Origin is actually fromFloss to Sweden, where every
evening around 10:00 PMstudents, individually or
collectively shop from Windows,balconies, and rooftops.
To act as a much needed safetyvalve and cry of angst for
students.
It is spread across beinginspired Hong Kong citizens to
(14:55):
shout from their windows everynight during the 2019, 2020 Hong
Kong protests.
And you know, then there was, Iguess you could say there's
something similar during thePandemic where everybody went
outside and applauded everyoneelse.
Yeah.
Steve (15:13):
And it took me a moment to remember the burrito with
roach eggs that hatch inside agirl until I, I read the story
and once you mentioned TacoBell, I feel like, did you hear
this?
Urban legends?
Oh yeah.
I was gonna say that a girl goesto the doctor due to her jaw
swelling only to learn.
She ingested a cockroach eggsfrom eating a taco bell taco and
had to remove a couple layers ofher inner mouth to get all the
(15:36):
eggs out.
And now she's suing Taco Bell.
This went viral via email asearly as March, 1998, but also
has a version where thishappened as a result of a paper
cut when licking envelopes.
Either way, that's not howscience works.
Stephen (15:50):
Nope.
And you can tell the next onetoo.
So you don't love
Steve (15:54):
the idea of a chicken pus sandwich.
That urban legend across highschool and college students in
the early nineties where a womangets a chicken sandwich with no
mayo.
Oh, you love mayo.
And she asks for no mayo butbites into it and has this odd
taste and sees this likemayonnaise, like substance.
So she goes up and says, Ididn't order it with Mayo.
And they're like, we didn't domayo.
(16:16):
And for whatever.
However, science later they findout that it was.
Not Mayo.
It was a tumor that the deadchicken had, which isn't how it
works because they diced chickenbeforehand and that would be
impossible.
But yes, we're done.
Steven.
You can undo that.
Stephen (16:36):
I had to.
Cover my ears cuz that one justgrosses me out so much.
I had problems even reading thatparagraph.
You're welcome.
I do not like food related urbanlegends.
I prefer horror to frighten me,not make me queasy.
Steve (16:50):
I.
There you go.
So I know what not to rewrite myIrv legend to be about.
Yes.
Now the next day Amy asks Travisif he can look at her approved
script when Amy tells somefellow students about her movie
and the humans can lick twolegend.
Toby pulls her aside and accusesher of stealing his horror genre
and says that no one will takethe Hitchcock award away from
(17:10):
him because he's earned it beinga conventionally attractive cis
white man with a rich daddy.
Yeah.
Privilege.
Yes.
Now, did you know this humanscan lick to Urban Legend
Stephen (17:22):
before?
Yeah.
Well, it was in one of my booksI read growing
Steve (17:25):
up.
Yes.
The Licked Hand is a deep cut ofan urban legend being found in
print as early as February,1982.
A very young girl is home alonefor the first time with only her
dog, and here is on the news.
A killer is on the loose.
She wakes up in the middle ofthe night to a scary dripping
sound from the bathroom, but sheputs her hand down by the bed
where her hand was licked, whichshe was confident was her dog
(17:47):
keeping her safe and goes backto bed.
In the morning, she finds herdead dog with humans can lick
too written in its blood.
And with that story, we're moreupset about the dead dog than we
are the slightly scared, butultimately safe girl.
Correct.
Of course.
Stephen (18:01):
Too many animals are harmed in urban legends and this
could have just been as scary ifshe had woken up and like found
the dog out in the hallway andher bedroom door closed.
And humans can lick too.
Written on the mirror.
Yeah, and I think it would'vebeen just as, Like just as
creepy.
Just as creepy.
The dog didn't need to die.
(18:22):
No.
Amy goes to see Travis who ishorribly upset because he got a
C minus on his thesis film andyou know, while she's trying to
commiserate with him, she alsoasked if he knows any
cinematographers on the set.
Three of the film student Crews,Stan Dirk and Sandra Faan
accident in which Sandra playsdead.
(18:43):
With some blood makeup on herforehead.
I love her for this.
Yeah.
After Amy describes the scene toSandra, the cinematographer,
Simon shows up with his camera.
As people are leaving for thenight, Sandra returns to the set
for her dorm room keys.
Someone sneaks into the studioand attaches a microphone to a
camera and approaches herquietly from behind.
(19:05):
As she's oblivious to what iscoming, she turns around and.
Steve (19:09):
Flash forward to the next day in the screening room.
Amy and her friends watch thelatest footage they shot.
Almost all of it's unusablebecause Sandra's a horrible
actress.
But the footage changes tofeature Sandra being chased and
killed by the unseen killer.
Really?
Well.
Yep.
Like she was a very good actressthere because she wasn't acting
right.
Amy thinks it's real, buteveryone else thinks it's
(19:30):
another one of her practicaljokes, though no one takes
credit for helping her film it.
So how would that be possible?
Now the, the urban legend ofhorror footage being real, I
feel like exists long before Iheard about it back, which was
with the Blair Witch Project.
Did you hear beforehand aboutlike, oh, this video or this
tape was found and it's a realmurder?
(19:51):
Maybe.
Stephen (19:52):
But Blair Witch was also my generation.
Yeah.
And there was even a documentaryon the sci-fi channel.
Or some channel like that.
As the Blair Witch was comingout where they had people
talking about the legend, theywere interviewing people in the
town, talking about other peoplethat have gone missing.
It made it seem very, very real.
If it weren't for some filmreviews talking about how the
(20:15):
movie was filmed, I think a lotmore people would've totally
watched it believing it wasreal, because I remember
everyone saying, Hey, Have youseen that There's a movie about
found, like they found thisfootage.
There's footage and
Steve (20:31):
it's a movie.
Now I, my mom wouldn't let mewatch it cuz I was young enough
for her to dictate what I couldwatch and not, and she wouldn't
let me watch it because sheheard it was real.
Stephen (20:38):
Like I was convinced it was real.
We watched the documentary and Iwas like, this is gonna be so
good.
And like in one of the things wehad convinced ourselves watching
the trailer, That you could seethe witch chasing them through
the woods as they
Steve (20:54):
ran.
Yes.
Now question with that though.
In that movie people died, doyou think you would be able to
enjoy a horror movie where youknow that the people were
actually being murdered?
Stephen (21:03):
So Mom w we told mom it was real and we didn't tell her
it was fake until like a goodtwo hours after we had seen it.
Yeah.
And she was horribly bothered.
She goes just to think.
Somebody's parents are watchingthat.
Like those poor kids' parentshave seen how they went missing
(21:23):
or died.
And at that point we were like,oh God, we have to tell her the
truth.
Steve (21:28):
Yeah.
I can't imagine being able toenjoy it if I know it was real,
but it was fun watching thatmovie about.
Horror movies that were real.
Yes, you did.
You showed me it and we had anepisode about it all
Stephen (21:41):
about evil.
And you can check out ourepisode with our exclusive
interview with Director PeachesChrist.
Steve (21:48):
Yes.
Now movie sets at night.
Sure.
Make a creepy setting for me.
Like I know that like any sortof movie about a movie or
anything meta like that, there'salways that big scene in the
movie set and I love it everytime.
Like I can't see enough versionsof that murder happening.
Is there any other setting thatlike you've seen a million times
but you'd happily see a millionmore?
Stephen (22:08):
Like when people are stuck inside during a big storm
and the power goes out?
I am always fine with thatsetup.
It always works for me.
Steve (22:20):
Yeah.
Now, later that day, Amy and theothers get news that Travis
killed himself.
Another film student namedGraham Joseph Lawrence talks to
Amy assuring her that Sandra'sprobably in Los Angeles filming
a bit part on the series er, andthen shaming her for having a
famous dead dad when she won'tsleep with him to get her film
made.
Men are gross.
(22:40):
Now, did you ever get anindecent proposal that you
turned
Stephen (22:43):
down?
Yes, I did in college and inCincinnati.
What was it?
No.
Okay.
Steve (22:50):
Nope.
All right.
Fine then.
Well, I never had when I turneddown.
No, just kidding.
Now Amy goes to the campus towerwhere it said that Travis shot
himself over his bad grades andfeelings of his film career
being over before it startedthere.
Amy has a run in with Travis',identical twin brother Trevor.
Also played by Matthew Davis.
Stephen (23:10):
Good casting to go ahead and cast the same person
as the twin.
Steve (23:14):
Yes.
He tells Amy that he thinksTravis didn't kill himself, but
he tells her not to tell anyonethat she saw him, which is
totally how innocent people act.
Yeah.
Now, but the location, fun fact,since the campus used as Alpine
University in the film, didn'thave an actual Bell Tower, 150
foot tower was built with anestimated$150,000 for this
(23:35):
movie.
So that's a big chunk of theirbudget.
All of the interiors were doneon a separate stage.
And the bell, which we see laterused in a death scene, is made
out of paper machete.
That's funny.
Machete, not machete.
I know what you
Stephen (23:48):
meant.
Now first time through, like youhave the whole Travis, Trevor
thing.
Did you suspect anything?
Was it too obvious or redherring for me?
I definitely thought somethingwas off.
Maybe it was Travis, maybeTrevor did it.
I watched a lot of soap operas,so maybe Travis didn't know he
(24:12):
had an identical twin that hadbeen put up for adoption, and
Trevor had grown up beingresentful of the child that
mommy and daddy had kept, andTrevor killed Travis and was
there to take his place andlike.
There was always that
Steve (24:26):
possibility.
Meanwhile, I spent the most ofthe movie feeling that like
Trevor, like that Travis didn'tkill himself.
And that like Trevor was Travisor something.
I, like, I some, something wasup and it, like, I knew that it
had, it had to be involved withthe plot somehow.
But I didn't think that he wasinnocent.
Stephen (24:45):
Yeah.
I never went with one was the
Steve (24:48):
other.
Yeah.
Now that evening Amy films ascene where the students
countdown to the new year andscream or countdown to midnight
and scream.
Yes.
They get the an on-camerafootage.
They need an Amy dismisseseveryone except
Stephen (25:03):
any of the volunteers that are gonna stay there to
have their screens recorded foraudio to add to the already shot
visuals.
Simon doesn't need to be thereanymore because there's no
visuals.
It's just an audio recording.
So he's outside smoking acigarette on his way home and
the killer wearing a fencingmask in this movie instead of
(25:24):
the, we don't know what wasunder the hood of the last one.
Yeah.
I like the fencing mask.
Yeah, it's nice.
Attacks him with his own cameraand beats him to death with it.
Amy, having heard the last partof the killer, Killing Simon
goes outside where Simon Simongot attacked, but the killer in
Simon's body are gone.
(25:44):
Amy notices a security cameraand she goes to Reese to ask to
borrow the tapes.
For the last hour or so with thecameras have
Steve (25:51):
recorded.
Now you gotta admit timing yourkill for a time.
You know, everyone around you isgonna be screaming as a very
good plan, but.
I mean, I can't imagine stayingup till midnight to scream.
If I did in college, it would'vebeen more for like sexy time
screams cuz it was hard beingable to have some privacy back
then.
I also
Stephen (26:10):
love that the killer believed he had a full minute to
do the killing because he knewof the urban legend.
Yeah, but aim, you can see onAmy's watch that she stops
recording the audio screamsafter 43 seconds.
Which is how she was able tohear the last part of the
murder, and when she watches thetapes later, the killer finishes
(26:30):
the murder at exactly 1201.
Yes.
So he was planning for that full60 seconds.
It's that 17 seconds that gotAmy onto him.
Steve (26:40):
Yes.
Not like anyone believes her.
No, because Amy Barrs the tapefrom Reese and is watching it in
the studio where she sees Simonkilled by the hooded fence mask
killer.
The killer appears in the creepymask and breaks into the studio,
but she locks the door to thebooth.
He breaks through the glasswindow thingy and Amy's chased
through the building to the dockwhere she dives into a sewer
(27:01):
pipe while running through thesewer tunnel.
Amy finds Reese and the two ofthem go back to the recording
studio, but the tapes are gone.
Reece is skeptical to Amy'sclaims about being attacked and
also says she can't do anythingwithout evidence.
Now I can deal with wacky campand like massaging plot holes,
smooth things around, but likein what world does like Reece
survive the first movie whereshe was literally shot and like,
(27:23):
oh, considered basically dead.
Like she only survived becauseshe's Loretta freaking divine.
Like I.
How would she hear that?
Like something like this couldbe happening again and not take
it seriously?
Stephen (27:34):
Yeah, that's my biggest issue with the movie.
Reese should have immediately100% believed what Amy was
saying.
I don't buy her being a skeptic,not after Pendleton.
Like that was one of the partsof the script that could have
and should have been different.
Different, yep.
(27:55):
So the next morning, Amysecretly meets with Trevor
again, where she tells him, Thatshe thinks that Sandra and Simon
are dead.
But Trevor tells her that hecan't go to the police where he
has a bad relationship withauthorities in the past and he
doesn't wanna draw the attentionand they won't believe him
either.
And Amy thinks the killer mightbe one of the students up for
the Hitchcock award.
(28:16):
Now,
Steve (28:16):
I don't think it's a spoiler cuz I don't think it
happens, but we never find outwhat this criminal past is that
he's so a afraid of the policeis.
Do we?
No, we do
Stephen (28:24):
not.
I
Steve (28:24):
mean, it's probably make something up
Stephen (28:25):
for me.
He got involved with sellingdrugs.
Okay.
And like the one brother thatwas so focused on making
something of himself and theother was a screw off who was
doing and selling drugs.
Steve (28:39):
Now in terms of motive winning award is passable, I
feel.
But do you prefer personalmotives like this or
interpersonal motives?
Like the first one where it wasall tied back to something
Stephen (28:48):
she did.
So I do think it's more thanjust the award.
I think it goes along.
With what it is a guaranteedHollywood career.
We've seen in movies like Screamthree, what people will do to
make it Big, r i p, Sidney'smom.
But yeah, the motivation is abit weaker.
There are ways it could havebeen fixed easily enough though
as I said, and they do tweak ita little bit.
(29:09):
They tweak it a little bit laterand that helps.
But I maybe would've like morepeople besides.
Just Toby and Simon, or notSimon, Toby and Travis like
being gung ho, like maybe theyall could have been Type A
personalities so that, you know,more people would've been
(29:32):
really.
Up for it because some of thepeople were just like, I'm in
film school.
Yeah.
Steve (29:37):
Now Amy takes the run to go through suspects and
theories, so that's a good timeto share.
Who were you thinking it wasthis time around?
I was totally on Trevor beinghis brother or something weird
with that.
Yeah.
I mean, why
Stephen (29:49):
not?
Toby, he's creepy.
There's Kevin, the PA that isoverlooked and poorly treated in
person in every scene that he isin.
And Graham who.
Seems like now that Travis isgone, the one that's most.
Hungry, determined and hungrybecause he needs to be famous
for
Steve (30:09):
Daddy.
Yes.
Now that evening Amy andcolleague Vanessa, the booms
operator on the film who clearlyhas a crush on the straight Amy
Head to ride Mary Miners thelocation of the tunnel of Terra
Carnival ride scene where theurban legend has railed up,
bought dead bodies in thecarnival ride.
Stan and Dick arrived there tosit up the bodies and Amy asked
(30:33):
Graham why he brought along theodd pa.
Kevin Graham is upset that Amyis pulling a power trip in front
of everyone and we leave.
Amy sees Trevor watching themfrom a tree nods to him and
tells everyone that they canleave to get something to eat.
When Stan goes off into thetunnel to fix more lights, the
killer hits him on the head andelectrocutes him with a sliced
(30:53):
cable.
Next, the killer attacks Dirkand pushes him against the
control box.
Electrocuting him the rides.
The rail car stops with Amyinside and she walks the rest of
the way.
Amy finds Dirk's dead body andis chased by the killer to the
entrance where Reese is waiting.
Again, she ventures into thetunnel, but the killers fled.
The police arrive and carry awaythe dead.
(31:13):
Stan and Dirk, while they takeAmy away for questioning.
Now, in all my theme parkexperiences, I've never heard
of, like the whole dead bodiesbeing in the ride thing.
Did you?
Yeah.
So
Stephen (31:24):
there's an urban legend of a haunted house ride at
Camden Park in West Virginia.
It's one step up from acarnival, but it's like a
permanent carnival.
So the urban legend stated thatthe ride was like, because it's
West Virginia has to shut downfor the winter.
(31:44):
And so like during the fall andwinter the copper hits, snakes
went in there and had a lot ofbabies.
And so come springtime when itopens, people are riding through
and the first people coming outof the haunted house ride.
They're all dead and people seeall these like they'd been
bitten to death by all thecopperhead snakes.
(32:05):
Yeah.
And so that was a big urbanlegend thing.
And a lot of people wouldn't goon the haunted house ride.
There, I don't know if youremember we watched a movie
called The House is OctoberBuilt.
Steve (32:17):
Yeah, I do remember
Stephen (32:18):
that.
Yep.
And in one of the opening thingsof it where they're talking
about Urban legends and thingsrelated to haunted houses and
stuff.
They actually show a clip of thehaunted ride from Camden Park on
there, and I was like, see, itdid make it further than just
West
Steve (32:36):
Virginia.
There you go.
And also, would you be able togo out and like film this whole
scene if you were chased by amurderer the night before?
Can
Stephen (32:47):
we talk about how Amy was chased by Hiller the night
before and she feels safe enoughto be alone outside, whether
Trevor was watching or not,because he was in the woods, 50
to a hundred feet away or more?
Like someone could pop up behindher and at this point she should
have told more people about hertheories.
Like no one is wondering whySimon didn't show up for this
(33:09):
shoot.
Like what was her excuse forneeding a new director of
photography?
And if she's really scared andthey are setting this trap, like
have more
Steve (33:20):
fail
Stephen (33:20):
safes in place.
Yeah.
Don't send everyone away.
Like was that like, so thatthere's less potential victims
or I.
Poor planning.
Yeah, it just like, that's oneof the areas of the scripture.
I was like, this needed help.
Steve (33:34):
Yes.
And Reece keeps showing up atthe most convenient times to the
point where it almost feltsuspicious to me.
Now, I would never want to seeLoretta Divine be a murderer,
but I was remembering like, Iwas like, oh God, they're not
gonna do this, are they?
Because like, I think part of itwas her pa bad character
writing.
Yeah.
But I was like, something's upwith her and it just feels
weird.
Like no,
Stephen (33:54):
it's one of those like, I never ever thought that it
might be recent.
Just like they may have made herskeptical of Amy.
Yeah, but it's not in hercharacter
Steve (34:05):
to do this.
Yeah.
Now, what happens the next day?
The next
Stephen (34:08):
day, Trevor meets with Amy in a room where he tells her
that he followed Graham, but helost him the previous night and
can't rule him out being akiller.
They lie down together on Amy'sbed where Amy falls asleep and
she has an intimate dream of herand Trevor having sex when
suddenly Trevor stabs her andAmy wakes up in the bed alone.
Have
Steve (34:28):
you ever had a dream where I murdered you?
No.
I don't think I've had a dreamwhere you murder me either.
Well, that's good.
That's good.
All right.
Now my biggest reason for hopingGraham wasn't the killer was
because I was hoping the killerwould murder him gracefully.
Just
Stephen (34:42):
for the record.
Yeah, that tracks.
He's not a nice person anddefinitely the frat boy of this
film.
I also believe that Trevor'sdoing some gaslighting on Amy,
making her rely only on him,keeping her from opening up to
her friends.
Even Edward Cullen would look atthis and be like, dude, that's a
bit much.
Steve (35:00):
Or he'd be taking notes.
But yeah, I definitely feel likeall the men in this movie are
horrible.
Yeah.
Now Amy sees a light on in thetower and finds Vanessa who says
she got Amy's note to meet her.
There.
Amy replies that she didn't sendany note.
When a dummy falls on the table,realizing they've been set up,
Amy grabs Vanessa and the twogirls run up to the tower,
(35:20):
followed by the killer withoutever telling Vanessa that
there's a killer or why theyshould be running from this
person.
They hide in her room where thedoor opens and the killer grabs
Vanessa, but leaves Amy lockedin the room.
Amy finds herself trapped withthe corpses of Sandra and Simon
the cameraman, and breaks downthe door only to find dead
Vanessa hanging from the papermache tower Bell.
Yeah.
(35:40):
Amy runs outside where Reesesees her and begins to follow
her.
Now I don't really know of anurban legend.
I couldn't find one on Googlingabout, like the past love note
or, yeah.
I don't think it is one.
But like, did you ever have anissue or like a, a mystery like
that or someone forged a note orfound a note?
So
Stephen (35:58):
I, it was also a mistaken apartment.
Mm-hmm.
Because the note was left at mydoor, but it was actually for
the apartment across the hall.
And I was really confused by thecontent and not knowing the
handwriting and things.
And it wasn't made out toJessica.
It was just like written withoutlike, dear Jessica, it was just
written out.
I was like, I don't get this.
(36:20):
And it wasn't signed and like,it wasn't until like we were
talking about, I was talking toher and I was like, I got this
note.
And she goes, I know who that'sfrom.
And I was like,
Steve (36:34):
Thank like, so that's the close.
At least.
That was confusing.
I mean, I remember back in theseventh or eighth grade when my
friends and I were all assholes,we thought it'd be fun to like
forge love notes pretending thatwe were like confessing our love
to someone like, but like wewould write it as someone else.
Unfortunate people.
Unfortunate people.
We would send them love notesfrom other unfortunate people
and try and make loveconnections because we had the
best intentions and weren'tbeing asshole children.
(36:55):
I'm sure you weren't.
Stephen (36:56):
Yes.
Steve (36:58):
Growth.
Stephen (36:59):
Yeah.
Amy finds Trevor takes her tothe library.
He tells her that in his owninvestigation, all the people
that had worked on the thesisfilm, the gods of men or his
brother's film are all dead.
They watched the a very bad filmand at the end of it, Amy
notices a splice and says thatit's not Travis Travis's film.
(37:21):
It's his credits, but not hismovie.
Someone has taken his movieplans to pass it off as their
own.
And there's only one personstill living that worked on
Travis's film, Amy and TrevorWale.
Toby, as he is driving to thecampus by flagging him down and
threatening him with a gun asanother urban legend, the guy
picking up a dead hitchhiker,they take him to the studio set
(37:44):
and handcuff him to a chair andaccuse him of being the killer
for, he's the only survivingcrew member that worked on
Travis's
Steve (37:51):
film.
Yes.
And when they go to find Toby,am I the only one who was like,
who's Toby?
Yes.
Oh, okay.
Stephen (37:57):
I forgot about him.
My biggest thing is that afterthe harrowing events at the
Tower with Vanessa's death, themsitting through the movie is too
calm.
Like maybe have found a way toput this scene first, or at
least the part of them watchingthe movie and figuring out that
it isn't Travis's movie first.
Then have them split up Amy tofind Vanessa and Trevor to find
(38:20):
Toby like the last two people.
And Amy finds a note on her doorfrom Vanessa that she's at the
tower, and then the tower sceneplays out and then Amy comes to
the set where Trevor already hasToby tied up and set it up in a
way that we start to haveserious doubts about whether we
should trust Trevor.
Well, you know, that's how tohave, how I would've done it to
(38:42):
make Amy seem less, that shedoesn't care that her friend
just was
Steve (38:46):
hung.
Okay, so note to self, if one ofthe lesbians mysteriously dies,
were not going home and watchinga movie.
Correct.
Okay.
Good to know.
Yep.
Now just then, professor Solomonarrives where Trevor acting as
Travis says that Toby stole hisfilm.
Toby reminds Travis that Travisdid the sound on his own and
merely gave the credit to Toby,who has never seen the film.
(39:07):
Suddenly, Solomon reveals thatthis means that he gave Toby an
A for nothing and pulls out agun and shoots him.
Only to realize that Trevorisn't actually Travis.
Now, did you see this coming?
I did not.
Stephen (39:19):
Not even a little bit.
But it does start to make moresense, especially with some of
the things that come up.
Is it bad
Steve (39:27):
that my first thought was like, this is a very big
overreaction for forging agrade, and I didn't realize that
this meant that he was a killeruntil he started doing his
backstory.
I just thought this teacher tooklike plagiarism and faking work
very seriously.
I can't
Stephen (39:41):
believe you did that.
Damn you.
No.
Why would you go around with agun?
Steve (39:45):
I don't know, but I figured it out real quickly cuz
he g gives us all theexplanation that we need real
soon.
Yeah.
Trevor goes for the gun and Amyruns Solomon knocks Trevor aside
and holds him at gunpoint.
The professor tells Amy thatmany years ago, her father was
one of the judges who cast thedeciding vote against him for
the Hitchcock Award in filmschool.
Leaving him to be a horriblecollege has been teacher his
(40:07):
entire life, and it's all herdaddy's fault and not his own
for his abilities.
Yeah.
Solomon explains that.
When Amy came into his office onthat day with her idea about
making a horror movie about anurban legend serial killer, he
was like, that's a great idea.
I'm gonna kill everyone whoworked on Travis's.
Film and frame her for thekilling so I could steal his
film and submit it as my own.
(40:28):
No problems with that plot.
Yeah, Graham Go comes out ofhiding and swings a chair at
Solomon, but it's a prop chairand falls apart on impact.
The four of them battle over allthe different guns with Graham
getting shot in the back withwhat we can only hope is a fatal
wound.
So Reece
Stephen (40:43):
arrives and points her gun at all of them.
Unsure of who is the killer.
She makes Amy kick the gun away.
Okay, everyone out of the creepyass graveyard, including the
undead because she thinks it'sTravis feigning Innocence,
Solomon and Reese, that Amy'sthe killer because Reese saw her
running from the tower a fewhours ago when Vanessa was
(41:05):
killed.
Reece points her gun at theprofessor saying that she never
told anyone that she even sawAmy running from the tower.
And the only way that Solomonknows.
Is if he was there, Solomonpunches Reese and she punches
him back.
And then during the strugglethey knock over an entire milk
crate of prop guns and the propgun gets mixed in with the real
(41:27):
guns.
Amy, Trevor and Solomon eachcome up with a gun.
Trevor.
Trevor gets a click of a fake,and then Amy Bates Solomon with
those who can't do teach Jab,and he gets a click as well.
And Amy has the gold trim gunthat Reese had shown her
earlier.
And, but she can't do it.
She can't shoot him, and so shetries to pass the gun to Reese
(41:49):
and she's like, just give it tome baby.
And Solomon jumps on her, andthen he and Amy are struggling
over the gun, and then he getsshot during the struggle.
Reece then places him underarrest as Amy and Trevor
embrace.
Graham also finds that Toby isstill alive and he will survive.
Not that we care.
Steve (42:10):
Yes.
So they made it somewhatpersonal with her dead dad's
vote against Solomon.
But was the reveal worth thebread?
I can't even call it breadcrumbs.
Wasn't there just like one lineabout her dad?
Yeah.
Stephen (42:20):
Well, no, like we talked about him earlier about
how, you know, famous and da dada.
It has the bones of a very, verygood movie here.
It needed some tweaking.
And maybe I do give the filmmore leeway because I see how
good it could have been.
And it's not like theperformances are bad.
All the acting is good.
Yeah.
(42:40):
All the acting is good.
The scenes are great.
The atmosphere is nice, like.
There's so much good with thismovie.
Yes.
Steve (42:50):
Now, some months later, Trevor is accepting the Alfred
Hitchcock award on behalf of hisof his Late Brother's film.
When the Creepy PA Kevin perchedhigh atop a walkway, attempts to
shoot Trevor as he's acceptingthe award and gets shot by
Reece, Kevin falls off thescaffolding into a large airbag
below, as Amy yells, cut.
It's the last scene of Amy'svery first independently funded
(43:13):
movie titled Urban Legends withher directing Trevor in the
leading role.
Toby is the assistant directorand most of the crew in acting
parts with Graham talking on acell phone nearby as Amy's
manager to discuss her film'supcoming completion for a future
premiere.
Yeah.
Now, if you survived a tragedylike this, would you pull an Amy
or Gail Weathers and make amovie or book about it, or would
(43:34):
you be trying to move on?
Stephen (43:35):
Since they're creative people, I can definitely see
them making a movie or a book aspart of the healing process.
For me, it would be therapy,meditation, and silent retreats.
What about you?
Steve (43:47):
I would probably write a book if I could make money off
of it.
Yeah, there's no, I would, yeah,monetize my pain for sure.
In a
Stephen (43:55):
final scene set, another few months later, a TV
set showing Amy's complete filmwas turned off by a nurse while
Daz and near catatonic Solomon,now confined to a wheelchair
from his gunshot wound isresiding in an asylum.
I just love that film, don'tyou?
I think we have a lot in common.
(44:17):
Solomon is wheeled away back tohis room by a familiar looking
nurse who is Brenda Bates, theWild-Eyed Killer from the first
urban legend movie and theinspiration for this whole
thing.
How much did you love that?
So much?
Like it's kind of like at theend of the gym movie and then
the misfits showing up in thepost credit scene.
(44:39):
I was like, That helped he alot.
Having Brenda come back as thishelped a lot,
Steve (44:47):
what would you, would you have liked to watch a third
movie where it was the two ofthem teaming up?
Stephen (44:52):
I would definitely like to see Brenda and Reece return.
I would be okay with Solomonthere as long as like Brenda
double crosses him and kills himand.
Like he's being all smug andthen she like pushes him out a
window or something.
I think that'd be amazing.
Yes.
Sounds good.
And Reese needs to believe thecrazy ass white girl the first
(45:14):
time she tells her something'swrong.
Steve (45:16):
Yes, she does.
All right, final
Stephen (45:18):
thoughts?
It's really fun.
It has, you know, some issuesthat we've talked about.
But overall it's a funcontinuation.
It's not a bad movie by anystretch of the imagination.
So yeah.
This is the last one in theseries that is a slasher.
The next one is Supernatural.
Wow.
Steve (45:38):
We'll be sure to dive into that one next week.
But in the meantime, we'd loveto hear your thoughts on Urban
Legends Final Cut.
You can do that by emailing usat happy life pod gmail.com,
Stephen (45:49):
or you can get in touch with us on the socials, whether
that is Facebook, Instagram, orTwitter at Happy Life
Steve (45:57):
Pod.
And until next time, everybody,stay happy.
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