13th Child

Bad acting was only one reason this movie sucks ass. What a complete waste of time to watch this dreadful piece of sh*t!! Who would have thought that "Benson" would stoop so low as to "act" in a crappy movie like this. And Christopher Atkins needs to go back to the Blue Lagoon. He sucked as well. Oh, and how many times did we actually get to see this Jersey Devil? Hell, he made probably about three appearances in the whole damn movie. Good thing though, it was totally comical when you did get to see him. And Michelle Maryk, she was absolutely awful. Her enthusiasm just overwhelmed me throughout this nightmare. She looked and acted just like what she drove around in, a dull, pale old VW Bug!! Avoid this one at all costs.

Living in New Jersey one becomes familiar with the legend of the Jersey Devil, it's a shame that the creative team behind this picture didn't brush up on that legend. The film has the fun stylings of those campy drive-in horror films, but aside from that, suffers from painfully long/slow scenes coupled with downright derivative imagery. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, ALIENS, 12 MONKEYS, and even the EXORCIST all exist in this film. The film, for a low budget feature, actually shows decent production but the acting, script, and story all suffer so. Here's hoping a "Volume 2" isn't in the works.

You can't go wrong when you buy a tape or DVD for 1 or 2 dollars. If you don't like it, just sell it and pass it along, and you're not out much at all if anything, but this one is one that I'll keep. A nice and eerie telling of the Jersey Devil folklore without being grossly gory. Some here say that it's not being honest to the folklore, but then again it's FOLKLORE. Overall, I would not give it a 9 or 10, I'd say that it's more deserving of a 5 or 6, but there are three things that made me jack up the rating. One, a super performance by Cliff Robertson that is spooky enough but not hammy, tough for good dramatic actors to do with horror material. Two, very cool way that the creature manages to get in and out of locked places, worthy of comparison to the best X-files. Three, the idiots who gave it an undeserved zero or one, that's worth a couple extra points right there. (same ones who give this comment the NO vote) These are the type who are sour on anything that isn't a gorefest of unredeeming violence. You know the type, they think the remake of TCM is better than the original, and they think Hitchcock's Psycho was boring between the killings and should have been in color. Oh, wait a minute, yeah, that was done already!

I figured that I'd see this since I live in the Pine Barrens and I thought the Jersey Devil would make a good story, but was disappointed.

Besides them making up their own version of the Jersey Devil legend, the movie had other bad points. The acting of most of the people in the movie wasn't very good. The special effects were bad even for a B movie. Also parts of the movie that were supposed to be scary ended up being laughable because of the lousy acting and sound effects.

Most of this could be forgiven as this was a B movie, except the plot made no sense what-so-ever. I talked to some other audience members as we left the theater to see if it was just me who was confused, but they were just as confused as I was.

Currently this is only playing in South Jersey, but I'd wait for it to come to video when it gets near you.

Being one who was born and raised in South Jersey and near the Pine Barrens, I just had to see this movie. I read all the negative comments and ratings and braced myself for the worst. However, I was not all that disappointed.

OK, so I gave this movie a HUGE benefit of the doubt, being a huge fan of South Jersey folklore and of the Jersey Devil, and also a fan of horror movies. But I still did enjoy it for the most part. It was good and bad.

The Good: Cliff Robertson gave a great performance as Mr. Shroud, the mysterious Native American descendant. Christopher Atkins was also good as Ron, the park ranger and Gano Grills was good as Mitch, his partner. Robert Guillaume was excellent as Riley, the former cop.

Aside from the acting, the basic story was great. And what made it better was that it was really filmed in New Jersey, particularly in Batsto village/park. But they did a good job of making it into Shroudsberg Manor. Also, I personally laughed at the Piney Hunter. I thought he was the funniest person.

Although they changed the Jersey Devil legend, they did a good job in keeping with South Jersey history. They put the Lenni Lenape as the Natives there, which is true.

The Bad: Michelle Maryk was downright awful as Kathryn, the D.A. assistant sent to investigate. Leslie-Anne Down was good but...why such high billing? She was only in the movie for a minute or 2. Seems like the good actors were given the small roles. Michelle Maryk got WAY too much screen time, I see why they gave her such a low billing, I wouldn't advertise her myself.

The effects were not so great, and the camera-work was a bit shaky at times. The editing was awful, and the text on screen was badly put together. The time changes were confusing, but I actually sort of did get them. And they changed the legend, but I understand why.

Over all: Not a movie for everyone. Mainly one for South Jersey locals.

If you go to watch: Put it in your mind that this will be pretty bad and that the legend was changed, it will be easier to sit through then.

6/10.