Incident at Loch Ness

WARNING: THIS REVIEW REVEALS SOME IMPORTANT SECRETS OF INCIDENT AT LOCH NESS AND ITS DVD. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog and his crew (including fellow filmmaker/screenwriter Zak Penn) embark on a journey to Scotland in order to make a documentary, uncovering the truth behind the notorious Loch Ness monster. After several days of fighting, on and off the boat, the crew finally comes into contact with their underwater nemesis and hilarity ensues. Well, not quite. At first glance, Incident at Loch Ness seems like typical documentary fare but, as things progress, we go further and further into comedic territory and begin to question the authenticity of the film. That is, until a climactic bout with none other than Ness herself, where things take a quasi-dramatic turn and it becomes apparent that this is no ordinary documentary.

Incident at Loch Ness is in roughly the same vein as Christopher Guest's films, mainly Waiting For Guffman, in that it's about a production within a production. Throw in a little Blair Witch and you're almost there. In this case, the jokes are a lot more subtle and the fact that this is a hoax isn't clear during the first half of the film. Slowly, things get more and more dramatic and self-degrading. There is even a confrontation between the filmmakers where Zak Penn points a flare gun at Herzog's head, claiming that he'd heard of Herzog doing it to Klaus Kinski during the filming of Aguirre: The Wrath of God.

Once we reach the Blair Witch-ian climax, the film takes a striking/jarring turn from comedy to horror. There are even some casualties. To be fair, while appropriate, the ending doesn't go down as well as one might hope for. Throughout the first two-thirds of the film, there is a skillful use of pacing but, once we reach the last half-hour, the film starts to drag. Still, this film is truly unique, and that makes it superior to most of the derivative rubbish out there. Plus, the characters are quite charming and we get a Jeff Goldlblum cameo, as well as a second-long cameo of Crispin Glover in profile. The majority of the crewmembers are also really charismatic, intelligent, foolish, and funny...all at once.

Incident at Loch Ness comes packed with a number of valuable extras, some hidden, some not. First off, we get an hour-long in-character commentary track provided by Herzog and Penn where they immediately quarrel and have to prematurely end things. Afterward, several people come in and out, each participating in the commentary. This is a pretty funny track and worth checking out after watching the film (and before looking at some of the other features). It's too bad that it's shorter than the film but that's part of the gag, right?

On the disc's second side, we get several short featurettes concerning the characters in the film. First, we have "Professor Karnow's Kabinet of Kuriosities," consisting of 6 short segments of Karnow in his Hotel suite. The next featurette, "The Life of a Hollywood Producer," gives us 4 brief segments of Zack Penn discussing such things as the making of Osmosis Jones, as well as blaming Fox for everything that went wrong on the ill-fated journey.

Also, we have 2 clips of Herzog talking about how many movies have been made about him, as well as his distaste for speaking French (he'd have to have a gun pointed to his head, which apparently once happened to him). Lastly, there are 12 deleted scenes running twelve minutes total. One particularly worthwhile scene features a topless, sunbathing Kitana Baker.

If that's not enough, we also get a boatload of Easter Eggs. Since there are so many surprises scattered across this 2-sided disc, I'll just post a link to a site containing detailed instructions on how to find all the goodies.

The main highlight of these hidden extras are two commentary tracks: the first features Zak Penn, Michael Karnow, Lance Stockton and Stephen Marinaccio, the second is an excellent, "non-bullshit commentary" by Herzog and Penn, in which they acknowledge that the film is a hoax. On side B, there's a great 22 minute making-of doc, fake creature footage, creature miniature bloopers, comments by professor/soundman Russel Williams, underwater footage, clips with Herzog and Penn, special effects clips, behind-the-scenes footage, a special thanks clip, a production gallery, and two scriptments...phew.

If you like Herzog, Ness, Crispin Glover, and Osmosis Jones then by all means necessary, give this disc a spin. Incident At Loch Ness comes highly recommended as a terrific rental, although you'll probably want to keep it for a few days. Have fun wading through all those hard-to-find extras. -- Neil Karassik