Fact or fiction? That’s the debate that’s been going on for years over the existence of a Loch Ness Monster. Despite not having much in the way of evidence of her being, Nessie has become a thing of myth and legend, a creature that brings thousands of tourists, conspiracy theorists and all-around gawkers to Scotland each year, all trying to find evidence of a monster’s reality.
In 2003 it was announced in film trade papers that German director Werner Herzog, a legend himself, was embarking on a documentary entitled The Enigma of Loch Ness. Rather than making like Captain Ahab and simply hunting the sea beast, Herzog was going to use the myth of Nessie to explore humanity’s need to freely mix truth and fiction. Zak Penn’s immensely clever and cheeky Incident at Loch Ness does just that, at least the mixing of truth and fiction part.
Incident at Loch Ness is set up as a documentary about Herzog. Its filmmaker, John Bailey, just happens to be around when the wheels of Enigma get thrown into motion. It’s through Bailey’s camera that Incident at Loch Ness is shown as Herzog and his fellow filmmakers track down Nessie. All the while Penn, a writer on such very Hollywood fare as Last Action Hero and X2, is plotting to sabotage Herzog’s documentary to make Enigma something of his own – something bigger and more tabloid.
It’s not until the midway point of the film where the pieces of the movie’s many mysteries come together. And even then, there’s enough to leave your head scratching as to what’s real and what’s not. Is it a documentary? A mockumentary? The plot may play out as fiction in the end but the questions that the film raises and the answers it provides are very much a reality.
Incident at Loch Ness is a truly original work, and a very cheeky one at that filled with end-to-end laughter. The humour is dry and never feels forced. But it’s the meta-side of the film that sets it apart from others made in a similar vein. At risk of giving too much away, it plays off Herzog’s own legend as a behind-the-camera wild card while directing Klaus Kinski classic such as Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre: the Wrath of God. Even more importantly, it sets the audience up to dwell on Herzog’s ponderings about the role of myth in our lives, even for those of us who might not consider ourselves friends of Nessie.
Incident at Loch Ness Gallery
