I lived near the Pine Barrens for about 10 years.. one night driving to my friend Robin's house on Jimme Leeds Rd. I got lost, and out from nowhere comes this, i'm not sure,, monstrous super dog, flying gigantic bat with fur,, god only knows what kind of wretched creature flew over the hood of my car.. it 's scared the living daylights out of me.. anyway yeah the movie doesn't really follow the legend as I've understood it over the years.. there are some things about the movie that are true. like the Lenape Indians,, and the Village of Batso . I guess I can't blame reviewers for not liking this movie because I truly believe that you either had to have been born in SJ. or lived there for a decade minimum or had a run in with it.. as I did. i'll never forget that night as long as I live.. the movie was average,, nothing great.. not the worst thing I've ever seen,, yeah if I didn't have a personal stake in it or not having lived there 11 years then I probably to would have rated it lower.

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.

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!

The absolute WORST waste of my life I've ever had the misfortune to endure. The WORST thing about this film was the lead "actress", if you can call her that, Michelle Maryk. Whom she had to suck for a leading part in this piece of crap should die a slow death. She seems to be a graduate from the Barbara Bain school for wooden acting. It was completely PAINFUL to watch her. You will cheer for the monster to take her quickly and spare you the pain. DO NOT RENT THIS TRASH.Cliff Robertson credited with co-writing this filth. No wonder he's out of work. And Robert Guillaume, what's the deal with him taking a crappy role in a maggot movie like this? He must be desperate, please, people, send the man some money so he doesn't have to embarrass himself again like this.