Late one evening, college student Michelle Mancini is decapitated by a Killer in the backseat of her car. Meanwhile, local Fictional location students Natalie Simon and Brenda Bates are recounted by their classmate, Parker, how Stanley Hall, an abandoned campus dormitory, was the site of a massacre in 1973. Paul Gardner, a journalism student, discredits it as an urban legend. News of Michelle's murder quickly spreads throughout the campus, but the dean Adams and campus police officer Reese seem determined to bury the story, much to Paul's frustration. Damon, a jokester fraternity member, attempts to console Natalie, who is notably disturbed by the murder, and they drive to a bluff. After Natalie rejects Damon's subsequent sexual advances, he goes outside to urinate, but is attacked by an assailant in a hooded parka who The Hook. Natalie flees on foot and returns to the campus, where she notifies Reese. However, upon returning to the area, Damon's car and body are gone.
Amy Mayfield, a student at a prestigious film school, is unsure about what her thesis film is going to be. But after a conversation with security guard Reese Wilson about her experience with Urban Legend (film), she is inspired to make a film about a serial killer murdering in the fashion of urban legends. Meanwhile, fellow student Lisa has a drink with classmate Travis at a bar before her scheduled flight out of town. While leaving the bar, she begins to feel dazed, and is attacked and abducted in the coat room. She wakes up in a bathtub filled with ice and discovers that her kidney has been removed. Attacked by her abductor, she tries to flee through the window, but is decapitated in the process.
In 1969, three high school footballers tried to drug and kidnap their prom night dates. Their plan works with two of the girls but the third, Mary Banner (Lillith Fields), tries to escape. The football captain chases her into a storage room and punches her, knocking her out. Unable to revive her nor able to hear her heartbeat, he believes Mary to be dead. Panicking, he locks her body in an old trunk.