13th Child

Started out with some promise with documentary style of the Curse of the 13th Child and/or the Jersey Devil, but after that starting with the pot smoking hunter it reminded me of a 1974 style , made for TV monster movie. A lot of blurry images of the monster and a camera man's eye view of the victims. This stinker had absolutely nothing to do with the Jersey Devil or the 13th Child (whatever that is). The low budget Devil's choppers had one look to it. A close-up, corn syrup sticking , hard plastic stiff, opening of the jaws. Cheap. The only decent part of this bomb was Cliff Robertson aka Mr. Shroud. He did look like Bela Lugosi in White Zombie. I think Cliff was just having some fun and had the high powered friends to get this onto the shelves and get a writer's credit.

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.

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.

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!

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.