An American research party on Scotland's Loch Ness believes it has sonar evidence that the fabled monster of the lake is active. They summon Case Howell (Brian Wimmer), a veteran adventurer, to help them capture the creature for further study. Meanwhile, a go-getting TV producer (Lysette Anthony) arrives to make a documentary about the news (and instantly gets a crush on Case). But the locals stir the beast, which suddenly becomes carnivorous, and the lake's Coast Guard official (Vernon Wells) refuses to keep people off the shoreline and boats off the water. As the body count begins to require a calculator, Case and his scientists become desperate to stop the thing, enlisting the help of Captain Blay (Patrick Bergin), an eccentric hermit who has motive for slaying the critter -- it killed his son 17 years earlier, but Blay was blamed in the tragedy. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Review
Lock Ness is one very deep, very dark lake, and there's the problem: You can't see anything under water. Particularly at night. How convenient, then, for the special effects crew, which can cut corners in creating a creature by keeping things eye-squintingly dark. But that's bad news for an audience that wants to see the monster. Not until the very end does the creature get its big close-up, but by then few people will be watching this wheel-spinning melodrama about the in-fighting among a team of scientists. Part of the problem is the variety of Scottish accents by the cast; it varies from scene to scene. (Among others, you've got Australian Vernon Wells as a rude Scottish constable and Irishman Patrick Bergin as a Scottish hermit, who gets to whisper "Its eyes were as black as Hell" with a straight face.) And what's with the American money being spent at a bar in Scotland? How did all those left-drive SUVs wind up in Scotland? Who uses depth charges in a lake? But the best nonsequitor is saved for Bergin's Captain Blay (pronounced by all as Bly), who wanders onto the dock wearing a kilt and Braveheart -blue face paint with a spear in his hand -- to go scuba diving. Yikes. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
