Old landlord threatening lawsuit. PLEASE HELP!

I rented a house with 2 of my friends in the spring of 2002. We had to sign 2 separate leases because starting in Sept the rent would increase. In August, one of my friends changed his mind and backed out, leaving the 2 of us to deal with it. All 3 of us signed the lease. The 2 of us decided that we couldn't afford to stay. We talked to our landlord and told him that it was impossible for us to stay. We couldn't afford it and we couldn't find anyone else to move in with us, or to sub-lease. He wouldn't discuss the issue with us. He told us that the only way to get out of our lease would be if we all died or joined the army. This seemed extreme to me, and it's a college town, so this can't be the first time this has happened. There was nothing we could do, so we completely moved out before Sept (when the second lease started). We didn't enter or occupy the house after the end of August, but now the landlord is threatening to sue us. Our landlord was totally uncooperative with us and we felt as though we had no other choice. Since we left before the 2nd lease began, we felt that we should be ok and he would leave us alone. Now he's threatening to sue us! What should we do???

Please help!

[able1]

Hi: Review your lease and see if it has any terms that may support you and in any case ask the landlord again to work something out--many will do something for you in medical situations or other emergencies...if there are any problems you could try to point those out as reasons for leaving as well; finally most landlords actually will not sue for the amounts owing after a broken lease, though they may try to report it to your credit agency; you are only liable until they re-rent it in any case so if you can find someone to take it, that may also help...