Urban Legends
One of the stupidest movies that I have ever seen is called Urban Legends: Final Cut. It stars Jennifer Morrison, who went on to play Dr. Cameron on House. (It's kind of funny to watch it to try an figure out how it is possible that she got even skinnier.) It co-stars Joey Lawrence (Whoah!), Eva Mendes, and Matt Davis, the guy who dumps Elle in Legally Blonde. (I couldn't think of what his character's name was but I knew it would come . . . Warner.) The whole premise of the film is that Jennifer Morrison's character is a film student who decides to do her senior thesis on urban legends. But uh no, as they are shooting, urban legends start to come true. Strangely, this is the "non-sequel" to Urban Legends, which stars one of the worst actresses of all time, Alicia Witt. Despite both of these movies tanking, it didn't stop them from making another movie, subtitled "Bloody Mary."
Speaking of "Bloody Mary," she was probably one of my earliest experiences with urban legends like most people. And when Candyman came out, I have to admit, that I was either stupid enough (or brave enough) to test out the validity of his existence although that movie is pretty creepy. I have to admit that certain cities both kind of freak me out and fascinate me with their belief in mystical forces. New Orleans is one of them; Miami is another one. If I am correct, there are some who practice Santeria, which is a Caribbean religion that is sometimes associated with controversy because of the rituals that they engage in. But then again, maybe I've seen too many episodes of Law and Order and CSI; however, they haven't come out and said, "Hey, that's not an accurate portrayal of followers of Santeria." (Even though Law and Order is set in New York, I don't include it in the freak out category; it has too many good things that override the scary.) No offense to anyone who practices Santeria intended. Really.
I'm sure that there are a lot more urban legends that I just can't think of. It's funny to me how when you try to think of something, the more elusive it is. But if you didn't ask me about urban legends, I could probably come up with a lot of them. I just thought of one: the twins named Orangejello and Lemonjello. (As I type this, it hard not to laugh because I'm sitting across from Heidi. Maybe one of those is a potential names for the baby?)
I just looked up urban legends on a website. Some of them are just plain stupid. I wonder, do people really believe these things? What does that reveal about us as a culture?
posted by eromler at
8:31 AM
1 Comments:
I'd never heard that Miami is big on mystical forces. I'd always heard they had a large gay population but not anything on mysticism.
I think urban legends persist because they're harmless entertainment. They're sort of like stories parents tell children to explain complex theories. Or if you're my parents, you'll just convince me the moon is made of cheese for the hell of it (that was an embarassing day in school to learn otherwise). When I was a senior in high school, a few friends and I decided to test one of these legends. Legend had it that a witch out in the freakin' bookines of Bonaire, GA was stranded on a desolate road by a hill. She was murdered by a traveler and burried by the hill. "Now" whenever someone's car is stuck at the same point she is said to help drivers out by pushing their cars up the hill. So we drove to the location to test it out. I can't remember what happened but I think that's evidence enough that nothing happened. However, I do remember reading a scientific explanation of the phenomenon. It had something to do with gravity. I don't remember.
After I typed that, I could hear Dr. Sewell's voice in my head saying, "sounds like a memoir in the making."
By
Darcy, at 3:41 PM
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