Meet Al. He loves horror films. So much so that he’s going to film school and he’s started drafting his own screenplay for one. Unbeknownst to him, he’s going to find himself smack dab in the middle of one himself. Zoinks!

 Al is headed out to a cabin in the woods for the weekend with his girl and a group of friends. The group is composed of your standard horror fodder: the nerd, the asshole, the slut, etc. Before he leaves for the weekend, he says goodbye to dear ol’ mom (a brief cameo here by Linnea Quigley) and he picks up is anxiety ridden, hard to get out of the house, brother.

As he and his friends head out on their road trip, Al begins taking note of strange goings ons: he’s constantly hearing eerie music playing and he notices that it takes hardly any time to get from his house to the camping area (a function of films themselves where time quickly elapses). Could it be that he’s starring in an actual horror film?

 The kids get to their destination and they soon learn of the legend of the area from more cliché ridden characters: the townsfolk. Supposedly, a Man-Thing like tree monster hunts and kills unsuspecting campers at will. But it’s not enough to deter them and the horny kids getting their freak on. Even though Al tells the kids of the constant music and his coming to realization, that yes, they are actually in a horror film, they all think he’s nuts. He then sits his girl down and lays it all out to her. He tells her of the music, the seemingly short distance traveled, and looking straight into the ‘camera’, the fact that they are being filmed. He convinces her that they have the ability to alter the course of the film and they become bound and determined to re-write the script. After all, they are much too young to die!

Along with a woman he runs into from another movie (apparently she’s the star of a sci-fi film), the 3 band together to kill the tree monster as its already taken care of most of their friends. And just when it looks like they’ve outsmarted the ‘filmmakers’, they find themselves in another horror film as all who are killed turn into zombies. Al uses his ‘resourcefulness’ to again foil the plot by doing a Michael Jackson-like Thriller dance, leading the zombies into a big ditch. The End. Lame-o.

This film makes its intentions apparent from the beginning as the DVD case promises to break the 4^th wall like never before. What started out as an interesting plot device soon gets annoying and grating as each and every scene virtually beats it to death as Al constantly looks into the camera to talk to ‘us’. Not too mention, the actor who plays Al becomes terribly annoying himself, so much so that you’re rooting for the tree monster to kill him by film’s end.

Outside of some hilarious creature and practical effects, Legend Has It is a complete dud. A shame because I liked the premise and the entirely self-aware concept. Too bad the filmmakers felt compelled to beat you over the head with it.