Incident at Loch Ness is a 2004 mockumentary starring and produced by Werner Herzog and Zak Penn, who also wrote it. It also serves as the latter's directorial debut. The small cast film follows Herzog and his crew (Gabriel Beristain, Russell Williams II) while working on the production of a movie project on the Loch Ness Monster titled Enigma of Loch Ness. Incident at Loch Ness won the New American Cinema Award at the 2004 Seattle International Film Festival.

Plot

After a mysterious shot of a body floating in Loch Ness (reprised near the end), Incident at Loch Ness flashes back to the beginning of a documentary called Herzog in Wonderland being directed by John Bailey with an overview of Herzog's work as he himself begins work for a separate documentary to be called Enigma of Loch Ness, in which he is exploring the Loch Ness Monster myth. Throughout the film, Herzog asserts the Loch Ness Monster is merely a creation of a collective psychological need in society.

Cast

  • Werner Herzog as himself
  • Kitana Baker as herself
  • Gabriel Beristain as himself
  • Russell Williams II as himself
  • David A. Davidson as himself
  • Michael Karnow as himself
  • Robert O'Meara as himself
  • Zak Penn as himself
  • Steven Gardner as himself
  • Adrian Shine as himself
  • John Bailey as Herzog's Crew In Wonderland
  • Matthew Nicolay as Herzog's Crew In Wonderland
  • Tanja Koop as Herzog's Crew In Wonderland
  • Marty Signore as Herzog's Crew In Wonderland
  • Crispin Glover as Party Guest
  • Jeff Goldblum as Party Guest
  • Lena Herzog as Party Guest
  • Ricky Jay as Party Guest
  • Pietro Scalia as Party Guest
  • Jenno Topping as Party Guest
  • Stephen A. Marinaccio as Propmaster
  • Michael Scott-Law as Angry Man At Bar

Production

The entire movie is actually a mockumentary film-within-a-film-within-a-film invented by Penn. The ruse is revealed in Easter eggs hidden on the DVD. Penn wrote what he calls a "scriptment" (part script, part treatment) that outlined the specific structure of the film and including key dialogue that was needed in order to advance the plot, but left most of the dialogue and interaction up to the participants to work out as improvisation.

As shown on the DVD, the "hoax" was on even before photography started as several media outlets announced the upcoming production as an actual film. It also holds a weighted average score of 62/100 on Metacritic based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Critic Roger Ebert enjoyed the film, giving it 3 stars out of 4, saying: "Watching the movie is an entertaining exercise in forensic viewing, and the insidious thing is, even if it is a con, who is the conner and who is the connee?" Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called it: "an amusing mock documentary that spends considerable energy artfully trying to make you believe it's real as real can be."

References

  • Roger Ebert's review
  • Interview with director Zak Penn