There are only so many paths that a horror sequel can go down. Does an original character come back as someone's parent or friend? Are new characters dealing with the same danger that the previous ones did? Has a lot of time passed since the events of the first film? While Urban Legend (1998) is a fun ride of a cheesy horror movie, allowing fans to think more about the scary stories that have been told for decades now, the sequel Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000) is a tougher movie to enjoy.
From a main character who feels dull to the types of urban legends that are included, Urban Legends: Final Cut ultimately falls flat as a sequel.
The 1998 horror movie Urban Legend looks at classic scary urban legends and definitely succeeds. Sure, it's cheesy, some of the characters aren't all that well-developed, and some moments are a bit hard to believe. But all in all, it's a solid '90s horror film. The same thing can't be said for its sequel, Urban Legends: Final Cut, which was released in 2000. Fans of the original movie can find a lot of things wrong with it.
While there are many horror movie sequels that should happen, Urban Legend: Final Cut feels like an unnecessary addition to the horror genre. The main character Amy Mayfield (Jennifer Morrison) is devoid of personality, which is too bad since she's the person who audiences are following throughout the entire film. But the real issue is the main storyline. Amy is a film student who is considering what her thesis movie should be and she decides that she should focus on people dying in the fashion of urban legends, thanks to a serial killer who is obsessed with these stories. Audiences don't really find out why Amy thinks that this is a subject to explore or even much about her at all.
Another issue is that the urban legends depicted in the 2000 sequel are pretty disgusting and don't feel as classic and well-known as the ones in the first movie. In the original, there are stories about babysitters, hitchhikers, and the famous tale about not mixing Pop Rocks with Coke. In the sequel, there is a discussion of people getting cancer from cell phones, roach eggs in a burrito, and the killer taking out Lisa's (Jacinda Barrett) kidney. These urban legends aren't that popular, making audiences question why they're included.
Although there aren't many jump scares in this horror sequel, it still suffers from not choosing the right urban legends. The urban legend of a man hiding upstairs when a babysitter is home alone looking after young kids works because it's genuinely terrifying and many people can imagine how scary that would be. Removing someone's kidney feels too far-fetched to really haunt audiences.
The ending is also incredibly cheesy and trite. Audiences see that Amy is making the movie Urban Legends for real, which feels too obvious and on the nose to be an exciting and interesting conclusion. It's true that an Urban Legends sequel can only go down so many roads and the main character is going to get caught up in a slasher story about a killer who targets people using urban legends. But why not give audiences a stronger main character with more depth? And why not end in a more compelling way?
Another big issue with Urban Legends: Final Cut is how it ties the two movies together. The Craft: Legacy is a great sequel because it bridges the two stories by telling audiences that Lily (Cailee Spaeny) is the daughter of original character Nancy (Fairuza Balk). This reveal happens at the very end, much like how at the end of Urban Legends: Final Cut, the killer Prof. Soloman (Hart Bochner) ends up in a mental hospital with Brenda Bates (Rebecca Gayheart), the killer from the original movie. Since neither character is that layered or compelling, this doesn't feel that interesting. It also feels expected and exactly how fans would expect the movie to end.
When horror fans dive into a sequel, they want to see similar things from the first movie but a bit different. Maybe the main character is dealing with the same issue that the other one was, but this one is just as layered and easy to understand and sympathize with. Or maybe the same danger (serial killer, supernatural phenomenon) is back, but the stakes seem higher because time has passed and the same thing is still happening. While there are many ways to return to the same scary world and make it just as good, Urban Legends: Final Cut isn't a great sequel, and it doesn't entertain as much as the first movie does.