Sasha Thomas

Sasha Thomas appears as a supporting character and a murder victim in the 1998 slasher film Urban Legend. She is portrayed by American actress Tara Reid.

Biography
Blonde-haired and busty, 19-year-old college student Sasha Thomas attends Pendleton University and is the host of a popular sex column on campus WZAB radio titled "Under the Covers with Sasha". She is dating Parker Riley and is a friend of Natalie Simon, Damon Brooks and Brenda Bates.

Using her confidence and wit, Sasha offers on-air advice to sexually inexperienced students and encourages more seasoned students to experiment and try new things. Throughout the film, Sasha makes appearances at the radio station, in the student lounge participating in group discussions with her friends concerning the troubling events, at the library researching new sex positions, and at a fraternity party to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a previous campus massacre.

During the film's climactic killing spree, Sasha makes the fatal mistake of ignoring Natalie's warnings to go off on her own to the radio station. There, she is targeted by the killer while airing her show and gruesomely murdered. Her screams and cries for help and subsequent death is heard over the air on any radio tuned into that station. Sasha is the 8th and final victim of the Urban Legend killer, Brenda.Brenda's motive for killing Sasha is simply due to her friendship with Natalie. Natalie and Michelle Mancini had inadvertently killed Brenda's fiancée years earlier using an urban legend, and Brenda is taking revenge by killing all of Natalie's friends using urban legends. Sasha's death is reminiscent of the "Love Rollercoaster" urban legend where a girl's cry for help while being murdered is recorded.

Sasha's first appearance is the day after the opening sequence in which Michelle Mancini is killed. She's hosting her show at the radio station, attending to a sexually troubled girl. Sasha criticizes the girl's naivety and offers suggestions for future sexual activities. Based on this interaction, Sasha has proven herself to be a confident young woman who is unafraid of speaking her mind on all matters of sex. Later, Sasha is seen with the group when they are all sitting in the study lounge watching the TV report of Michelle's murder. Sasha seems horrified by the news and recalls that Michelle was supposedly listening to her show when she was killed, and wonders if her voice was the last thing Michelle heard. Sasha is seen at another study lounge meeting discussing Damon's death. She seems sympathetic to Natalie's claim that Damon was murdered, but she's much less concerned once Parker realizes her story mirrors an urban legend taught in their folklore class and argues that it must have been an elaborate prank. Sasha is later seen at the campus library where she bumps into Natalie. Sasha excitedly shows Natalie an early edition of a Kama Sutra book which she wants to use to try new sexual positions with Parker. Natalie then hesitantly shows Sasha the Encyclopedia of Urban Legends book she has taken. Sasha is worried that Natalie is still convinced that Damon has been killed, so they decide to look through the book together. Natalie and Sasha come to the page depicting the legend of the boyfriend hanging above a car. Sasha can tell that Natalie clearly had a traumatizing experience, but turns the pages, searching for more legends. They come across a legend depicting a car with flashing high beams. Sasha explains how gang members drive around with their headlights off and kill anyone who flashes their high beams as a warning. She tells Natalie that she's certain this story isn't a myth and that it happens all the time. She leaves Natalie at the library, joking that she needs to get going to do 'homework'. Afterwards, she appears at Parker's costume party dressed in lingerie and a fur coat, leading to a guy attempting to hit on her by telling her about an urban legend related to the song "Love Rollercoaster". His claim that the scream heard in the song is a murder victim's real cry for help from a 9-11 call disgusts Sasha and she feigns interest before quickly brushing him off.

When Parker informs the party of Paul's theory that there's a killer on campus, Sasha seems embarrassed by Parker's boorish behavior and his suggestion that Paul is the killer. She calls him a jerk and tells him she's leaving the party to go to the radio station. He apologizes and she blows him a kiss before she leaves, unaware that they have just said goodbye for the last time. Outside, a friend waits in their car for Sasha and they take off to the radio station together.

At the radio station, Sasha receives a call from a couple in need of sexual advice. In the background, with Sasha unaware, the killer sneaks up behind her engineer and attacks and kills him. The call is abruptly cut off and a confused Sasha checks to see the cause. The killer suddenly appears and attacks Sasha with an axe. Sasha screams and narrowly escapes, running from her recording room and into the hallways of the massive building. She runs through the station screaming for help, her listeners oblivious to the real danger she's in. Her first attempt to reach the stairwell exit is thwarted by the killer and she has several close calls before managing to separate herself from the killer for a moment with a locked door. Sasha comes to the building's atrium, a wide open space with nowhere to hide. There's a winding staircase in the center, and she pauses to catch her breath and look around before heading down. After descending one floor, the killer appears and grabs Sasha. Sasha screams and feebly slaps the killer, but she's overpowered and the killer tosses her over the railing. She manages to grab onto the ledge and hangs by her fingertips. The killer swings at her fingers with the axe, forcing Sasha to let go. When she falls, she hurts her leg, and is unable to run anymore. With the exit too far away, she manages to make it to the elevator, but takes it back upstairs to the third floor.

The killer slowly makes their way back upstairs as Sasha exits the elevator and limps through the hallways. Sasha's cries for help become more desperate and hopeless and she decides to quietly hide back in the room where she started and wait for rescue. This plan backfires as she starts screaming for help when she looks through a window and sees Natalie enter the radio station three floors below. The killer follows her voice and discovers Sasha before Natalie can come to her aid. Sasha, hurt and defenseless, crouches into the corner and begs the killer to spare her life, but the killer is merciless and hacks Sasha to death with the axe. Sasha dies without knowing her boyfriend had also been brutally murdered, or that her friend Brenda is the attacker.

Sasha is later mentioned when Natalie goes to find Paul and she tells him that she saw the killer and that Sasha is dead. When Natalie and Paul leave his place they run into Brenda who says that that she heard Sasha screaming on the radio. Natalie tells Brenda that Sasha is dead, shocking her. After hearing Sasha cry for help on the radio, Reese arrives at the radio station where she discovers Sasha's corpse. Reese gasps in horror at Sasha's mutilated body before leaving the station and calling the Dean and the police.

Once Brenda reveals to Natalie that she is the killer she asks Natalie not to scream as she had enough of that when she killed Sasha.

Character Type
In slasher films, the Blonde Friend is often voluptuous, superficial, and the primary source of sex appeal, a stark contrast with the final girl, who is usually virginal, headstrong, and soft-spoken. The Blonde Friend will often appear in the movie in provocative clothing and engage in sexual activity, two major slasher movie sins. This behavior is then later punished by the killer - and the filmmakers - in a manner that emphasizes the sins she has committed.In Urban Legend, Sasha is a busty blonde who loves sex so much that she hosts a radio show dedicated to offering sexual advice. Throughout the movie she ridicules inexperienced students on her sex radio show, dismisses Natalie's paranoia to focus on experimenting new sex positions with her boyfriend, and wears lingerie to a costume party. She is attacked by a hooded man with an axe during a live broadcast where her screams for help while being chased go unanswered. During the pursuit the camera highlights her voluptuous figure and her increasingly plunging neckline until she's eventually cornered and hacked up with an axe.

Death
Because Sasha's death occurs off-screen there is no way of being sure, but it's implied that the axe hacks into her face and chest on the first several swings and then decapitates her on the final swing. Unlike Brenda's other victims, Sasha's body is not relocated to Stanley Hall and is presumably discovered by police sometime after the events of the movie. When Reese discovers Sasha's body, only her bloody hand is shown. Judging from Reese's reaction, Sasha's dead body is a horrific sight.

Trivia

 * Despite many rumors that Sarah Michelle Gellar was offered the role of Sasha, director Jamie Blanks confirms that Tara Reid was the only actress he wanted for the part.
 * A scene featuring Sasha and Parker in Parker's fraternity bedroom was deleted from the final cut, but has since been released as a special feature. Sasha, dressed only in her bra and panties, dances for Parker while he watches from the bed. Sasha reveals to Parker that she has a surprise for him, but then notices Parker's dog, Hootie, underneath the bed. Sasha complains that having Hootie in the room with them while they have sex makes her uncomfortable. She removes him from the room and joins Parker on the bed. Later, while having sex in a complicated position, Parker complains about never having sex missionary style, while Sasha replies that variety is the number one key to a healthy relationship. To Sasha's annoyance, they're interrupted before finishing when Hootie enters the room. Hootie then coughs up a finger, frightening both Parker and Sasha.
 * In Urban Legends: Final Cut, Reese describes the murders portrayed in this film to a film student who debunks them as its own urban legend. This suggests that Sasha's death was swept under the rug by Pendleton University.

Reviews and Notices
"Tara Reid as Sasha, Natalie's friend and DJ at the college's radio station, is a standout, stealing every scene she's in."

"Tara Reid, as the vacuous Sasha, is demonstrably uninteresting."

"Tara Reid shows up long enough to show her ample cleavage bobble as she runs."

"Tara Reid lets her breasts do the acting...great acting!"

"Tara Reid can't scream, or run, or act. She can't do anything."

"Aside from Josie and the Pussycats, this is probably Tara Reid's most convincing performance. Her comedic instinct are given the occasional chance to shine, and during her chase scene you can practically see the fresh-faced enthusiasm she has for helping to create a grim and memorable death."

"Either no one told Tara Reid that she was taking on the role of the throwaway big-breasted blonde, or she accepted it with excitement, but she managed to make her character much more likeable and sympathetic than expected."

"Tara Reid has a great promiscuous role as the saucy, sexually charged radio talk show host Sasha."

"A particularly suspenseful scene involving the killer interrupting a slutty radio host's live broadcast may be the best thing Tara Reid's ever been in."

"Tara Reid (Sasha) has difficulty proving why she was cast for this role beyond her impressive cleavage."

"Tara Reid being killed while wearing a spiked choker, a babydoll dress and knee high platform boots is enough reason to check this out."

"Sasha: shitty actress, but that doesn't matter because she's a hot blonde with big tits. Her death scene does its best to highlight her best attributes."

"Tara Reid plays Natalie's friend Sasha, a busty blonde, who runs a sex question hotline on Pendleton Radio. Blonde. Big tits. Slutty. You just know she's destined for the grave before the credits roll."

"Tara Reid is perfectly cast as Sasha, a college radio host and slut about town. It's telling as to the film's overall quality that she gives one of the better performances."

"Tara Reid, as annoying bimbo Sasha, is a great example of how we'd be upset if the slutty girl didn't die."

"Tara Reid is an actress I usually don't enjoy watching, but the shallow sexiness of her character suits her like a glove. A highlight of the movie is seeing her scantily clad figure stalked by the killer in an abandoned radio station while her screams for help go unanswered."