site's critics consensus reads: "Elements of Scream reappear in a vastly inferior vehicle." On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 35 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale. Many critics drew negative comparisons to Wes Craven's Scream, released two years prior. Anita Gates of The New York Times called the film a "teen-age moviegoer's dream", adding: "It has familiar young television stars, familiar older stars with cult followings (Robert Englund as the aforementioned professor, John Neville as the dean), an edgy sense of humor, a tricky plot and characters too genre-savvy for their own good. Maybe there will be an oversaturation of Scream-inspired horror films someday soon, but this one feels fresh." Bob Heisler of the Los Angeles Times called it an unoriginal "low-voltage drive-in movie, made strictly by-the-book." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film two out of four stars, but praised Christopher Young's musical score, and adding: "The film is competently made, and the attractive cast emotes and screams energetically, and does a good job of unwisely grabbing one another by the shoulders." Entertainment Weeklys Ty Burr wrote of the film: "Proficiently filmed and utterly uninspired, it at least features a ghostly lead performance by Cybills Alicia Witt and a final twist that's entertainingly stupid. But why do all the characters have to be such nasty little dorks? Oh, right, otherwise we'd care about them." Kim Newman of the British publication Sight & Sound wrote: "Urban Legend manages somehow to be rather endearing, from Natasha Gregson Wagner's opening bit (what must now, after Scream, be called 'the Drew Barrymore position') to the hokey shaggy-dog punchline." Sequel A sequel titled Urban Legends: Final Cut, was released in 2000. Notes References Sources External links 1998 films 1998 horror films 1990s serial killer films 1990s slasher films 1990s teen horror films 1998 directorial debut films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films 1990s Canadian films American serial killer films American slasher films American teen horror films Canadian slasher films Films about bipolar disorder Horror films based on urban legends Films scored by Christopher Young Films set in New Hampshire Films set in universities and colleges Films shot in Toronto Films about mass murder Films about organ trafficking Original Film films Phoenix Pictures films TriStar Pictures films