I really love Small Town Monsters‘ work. They combine documentary and interview footage with narrative story elements to bring creatures from folklore and legend—like the Jersey Devil—to life.

“It’s one of those classic, gothic, American tales that we’ve wanted to tackle for years but just couldn’t find the right way to do it…until now,” says Small Town Monsters founder Seth Breedlove.

There are many stories told about where the Jersey Devil comes from. Some say that it was the thirteenth child of Mother Leeds, a woman who had already had twelve babies and was cursing her troubled pregnancy. While born as a normal infant, the child grew into a demonic being with hooves, a goat’s heagoat’s wings and a forked tail. Some say she was a witch and the father the devil. Others claim this legend was spread after a battle between Benjamin Franklin, who published Poor Richard’s Richard’s rival almanac, Daniel Leeds. Franklin called the Leeds family “monsters,” and what added even more hellfire to the story was that Leads, a Quaker, was ostracized by his religion for publishing pagan symbols in his almanacs and, after being kicked out of the church, went all in on esoteric astrological Christianity and occultism.

After being formally chastised as blasphemous and heretical by the Philadelphia Quaker Meeting, Leeds converted to Anglicanism and published anti-Quaker tracts criticizing their theology and throwing in his lot with the British royal governor of New Jersey, Lord Cornbury.

Leeds’ sonLeeds inherited the almanac business, and Franklin predicted his death as a joke and referred to him as a ghost in the following years. Given the symbolism and the fact that the ghost story was taken as truth, the Jersey Devil was the next logical step. The Pine Barrens, where it supposedly lives, are isolated and undeveloped, so they lend themselves to mysterious theories.

Bloodlines: The Jersey Devil is great. It combines horrific black-and-white footage with historical moments that bring the story—perhaps the truth—to life. It’s a high-quality film right up there with Small Town Monsters’ past work.

You can learn more on the official site.