It’s Halloween season and nothing is more “Jersey” on Halloween than the Jersey Devil. It’s our legend and every Halloween you’ll see many references to the legend. It all started with the Leed family in South Jersey.
According to Wikipedia, “Legend has it that Mother Leeds had twelve children and, upon discovering she was pregnant for the thirteenth time, cursed the child in frustration, crying that the child would be the ‘devil’. In 1735, the mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night as her friends gathered around her.Born as a normal child, the thirteenth child turned into a creature with hooves, a goat’s head, bat wings mouse and a forked tail. Growling and screaming, the child beat everyone with his tail before flying up the chimney and heading for the pines.”
Shawn Michael
So while we were talking about Halloween and New Jersey folklore, I remember growing up and in school we would see a movie that was about the Jersey Devil and the legend of our own monster “Pine Barrens”. Whenever it was Halloween or we had a last minute substitute teacher, we would see the movie ‘Mother Leed’s 13th Child’. It was a documentary style film that was shot here in South Jersey.
Shawn Michael
I remember all of us when we were very young, being very scared watching this movie. My wife mentioned how she was a little freaked out by the part of the movie that had creepy 17th century music and creepy Jersey Devil artwork. I thought the scenes of people walking through the pine trees at night were scary and of course that weird scream the Jersey Devil makes, always scared the kids in class. Now when I look back and watch this mockumentary I have to laugh but when I was a kid we were wide eyed and not laughing lol.
Have you seen this movie? do you remember being scared when you were a child? fun Halloween memories growing here in Jersey.
