A traveling carnival unleashes terror in a small Nebraska town when the main attraction manages to break free, and embarks on a carnivorous rampage across the countryside. The locals paid good money to see the abomination known as the Jersey Devil. When the creature escapes, however, their curiosity quickly turns to terror. As local sheriff Sam Atlas (Lou Diamond Phillips) rounds up a posse to track the vicious man-eater, the town pastor hatches his own plan for killing the monster that tore his son to shreds.