13th Child

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.

seriously?! with the exception of "the mothman prophecies" there has never been one single decently entertaining cryptozoologicaly based movie ever made, and this film is a perfect example of bad cryptozoological movies. First of all the writer/s had little respect for the actual ledgend of the jersey devil, but thats the least of the movies problems, the actors (except for the old dude who was controlling the devil, the only decent proformance in the entire movie) were awful, the dialog sounds like it was written by some directors cousin who thinks he knows a thing or two about hollywood screenplays, i dont want to sound like a bitter militant movie buff but i do want people to give the field of cryptozoology the respect it deserves, and if it keeps getting bad movies made about it like this the public will be far less likely to accept it in the field of mainstream science (i know the odds of that actualy happening are slim.......but still) hopefuly hollywoods thinning creativity will turn out a decent cryptozoologily themed movie in the future, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

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.

If you are thinking of seeing this movie, I would think again. Living in Southern New Jersey, the Legend of the Jersey Devil really hits home. So when we heard of this movie, there was no doubt we were going to see it. So we paid $7.75 each at the local multiplex, and settled in. I was originally expected Blair Witch Project type filmography, but the video was actually better than I thought it would be. The movie on the other hand was absolutely dreadful! Not only was their a non-existent plot, but the author completely changed the legend of the Jersey Devil! No Mother Leeds? There were so many obvious errors in the movie, it was really an amateur production. The theatre booed loudly at the end. I heard no less than 10 people comment that it was the worst movie ever. I couldn't help but agree.

If you were lucky enough to rent this stinker at Hollywood Video, where it is a new release, be sure to get it back ASAP for the dollar credit for early returns. That way it won't be a total loss. BTW what is with all the Jersey Devil stuff? I didn't see a single hockey player!