10 Horror Movies Inspired By Creepy Urban Legends

Though it's not a particularly well-executed movie, The Barrens does sink its teeth into a pretty gnarly local legend for the inhabitants of New Jersey. With the Pine Barrens to the south of the state often claimed to be home to the Jersey Devil, this movie commits the beast to cursed celluloid, portraying a family who go camping in the forest only to cross paths with the mythological creature itself.

The Jersey Devil is a long standing tale that was born from Mother Leeds, quite literally, in 1735. Pregnant with her 13th child, she quite understandably cursed the thing before it was born - resulting in it transforming into a winged creature with a goat's head and a nasty tail before flying up out of the chimney and into the Barrens for good.

There, it terrorises the locals and feasts upon livestock, unable to be killed by even cannonballs fired upon it. The Jersey Devil has had plenty of hoax 'captures' throughout the years, but remains as a persistent myth that crops up plenty of sightings, and has done since the early 1800s.

Seeing it on screen just makes it all the more terrifying to imagine actually witnessing in person.