Urban Legend Filmmaker to Filmmaker Talks Origins (and Deaths)

Unlike the beginning of Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life, Eli Roth isn’t seen at the start of Urban Legend, the new series he produced for Travel Channel that premiered during Ghostober this year. However, at the end of the first episode, “The Red Room,” there’s a “Filmmaker to Filmmaker” segment where he sits down to talk with Justin Harding, the episode’s writer and director.

Because they’re so interesting, I was hoping there’d be a “Filmmaker to Filmmaker” at the end of every episode. There wasn’t after the second one, “The Bite,” which Harding also directed, but there is one again at the end of the third episode, “The White Dress,” when Roth talks with its director, Ethan Evans.

I’m not sure about all eight episodes yet. Besides the first three (which are all out now), the only other one I’ve screened so far is the fifth one, “The Harvest,” which didn’t have one. Maybe the others do, though. (Fingers crossed.)

Anyway, in the “Filmmaker to Filmmaker” discussions that I have seen so far, there have been some interesting revelations, like these five. Let’s check them out.

1. What a Red Room Is

“The Red Room” episode was one I mentioned in my semi-review, “Urban Legend: This is a Travel Channel series?” As I explained, I’m not sure what I was expecting from the title alone, but it wasn’t what the episode ended up being about.

However, what inspired the episode was something Roth and its writer/director Justin Harding discussed during their “Filmmaker to Filmmaker” exchange. Here’s how Harding explained what a red room is:

“They actually made a film a few years ago called Making Monsters, which was about a red room killer. So I always thought it was fascinating that if you’re in the business of operating a red room, you are kind of a producer. You’re dealing with lights, cameras, lenses, editing, or, you know, live streaming. ‘Cause a red room is essentially a live stream on the dark web where you can…viewers interact via bitcoin to influence what happens. And I just thought, oh man, it’s interesting that the people that would be involved in that have to be producers.”

And in this case, it turns out to be producers who take a dark and greedy turn of their own. If you’ve seen it, you know what I mean. If you haven’t, I won’t spoil it for you.

1a. The Different Red Room Urban Legends

As with most urban legends, the Red Room is also not OSFA (One Size Fits All). As Roth pointed out, variations on the theme exist, including:

• A pop-up ad that takes over your computer, starts showing you the victims, then you become one of the victims in the next pop-ad that the next person gets.
• People pay with bitcoin to watch the torture of another person, who then either finds themselves eventually being tortured or having to pay not to be.

2. The Internet Ruined Urban Legends

At another point during Roth and Harding’s exchange about “The Red Room” and what inspired the episode, Harding says, “It’s a very dark subject, and the more research I did, the more I realized it’s a great subject for a horror film, ‘cause it is a great urban legend. There’s so many classic urban legends that we’ve loved for decades, and then the internet comes along and ruins a lot of urban legends, ‘cause you can just figure out…”

Eli Roth interrupts him and says, “Yeah, Snopes.com just debunked what was real and what wasn’t.”

Truth. Thanks, Snopes.

Kidding. Actually, thank goodness some of these stories turn out to be just that. Except, I still find urban legends fun because I appreciate the creativity in concocting the elaborate, yet seemingly plausible, tales.

3. The White Dress Is One of the Oldest Urban Legends

*Warning* Spoiler ahead!

This was another episode that, from the title alone, I was expecting something else. Maybe something along the lines of the “woman in white” stories of phantom hitchhikers or women wandering cliff edges or along riverbanks searching for lost lovers or mourning dead children. Something like that. Nope. It’s about a deadly dress.

Well, the urban legend it’s based on is about a girl wearing a white dress to prom, a dress that belonged to someone who had died. Not clear if the dress-wearer in the urban legends knows that or not. In the episode, she didn’t.

But the episode is about a dress that is both haunted and poisoned from coming in contact with embalming fluid. The premise was that, after viewings, a mortician undresses corpses before the dead are cremated or buried, and then he resells their clothes. That’s how the unsuspecting high schooler in the episode comes into possession of the dress —which ultimately possesses her before eventually killing her.

Naturally, Roth and the episode’s director, Ethan Evans, discussed how gruesome it would be for a mortician to steal clothes from a corpse and resell them. Again, it enters that, “Well, that sounds plausible” territory.

Or, as Evans put it, “At the same time, it’s something that could actually happen, which is the best urban legend.”

To which Roth agreed, “Yeah, they live in that space of it sounds so crazy, but it’s also still possible.”

Roth also said, “There’s something about the mix of the urban legend and the classic ghost story that I absolutely love.”

I have to agree, and it resulted in a fun marriage in this episode. But one thing that perplexed me was Evans (or maybe it was Roth), also said “the white dress” is “known as one of the oldest American urban legends.”

Really? That’s not the one I would’ve picked as an oldie but a goodie. Probably because before this episode, I had never even heard of “the white dress” urban legend before. Hope that doesn’t mean my Urban Legend Lover card will be revoked.

3a. The Unknown History of Vintage Clothes: The basis for a new series?

This wasn’t a “Filmmaker to Filmmaker” revelation that deserved its own number per se. Since it was related to “The White Dress” episode, I figured I’d just tuck it under there.

As Roth and Evans talked about the unknown history of vintage clothes, I couldn’t help but think, “Do I smell a new Eli Roth Presents brewing? Something along the lines of My Haunted Outfit Ruined My Life? Or My Haunted Clothes Tried to Kill Me?”

We’ll see…

4. Urban legends are more of an American thing?

Does every country have urban legends, or are they more of an American thing?

I don’t remember if it was the “Filmmaker to Filmmaker” with Harding or Evans, but during one of them, it was mentioned that urban legends are more of an American thing. Really? I’d never heard that before.

Admittedly, America definitely has its fair share of them, but I don’t think urban legends originated here for sure. And thanks to my travels, I know other countries have a few of their own too.

But just to be sure, I ran a quick Google search to confirm, and here’s what I came up with.

• Of course, leave it to Wikipedia to have a comprehensive list of urban legends: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_legends. (And it includes ones from all over the world.)
• Insider collected 15 creepiest urban legends from around the world: https://www.insider.com/urban-legends-from-around-the-world.
• Jack’s Flight Club curated a list of international urban legends they warn you shouldn’t read if you like to sleep: https://jacksflightclub.com/travel-hub/dont-read-these-urban-legends.

5. Planning

One thing I found the most fascinating about Roth’s “Filmmaker to Filmmaker” chats was when he asked Harding and Evans about their process, both the creating and the implementing. How much does it change from the writing to the end result?

There’s a lot more planning that goes into it than most people realize. After the words are put to the page, but before the cameras start rolling, Harding talked about how he diagrams, storyboards, and plans out his shots way in advance. It’s all very intentional and “seen” in his head first. Then he sets to work to conjure his vision into being.

Also, at least in Harding’s case, he explained how he also handles his own post-production editing and such, too. Which reminded me of what Dakota Laden once said in an interview about how long it takes to create Destination Fear episodes. In his case, he has a team to help with some of the research and such, but Laden also edits his own episodes. And as any aspiring YouTuber can attest, the editing is what takes the longest.

Whether it’s the director or someone else, whoever edited the Urban Legend episodes I’ve seen so far has done an outstanding job. Same with the directing. It’s a fun series to watch.

Check-In

Had you ever heard of “The White Dress” urban legend, or was it new to you too?