Loch Ness: They Created a Monster

I just saw this tonight as the opening film of the Inverness Film Festival. There was an introduction by the director John MacLaverty and a wee Q&A at the end. A bit of a treat! This is by far the best documentary I have seen on Loch Ness and it's monster! Beautifully shot and mixed with so much incredible archive footage. The story covers the heyday, I guess, of Nessie hunting in the 70s, from a mad group of Japanese men to a lawyer from Boston, an ex-military cockney and Loch Ness doc staple (and voice of reason!) the wonderful Dr Adrian Shine. The music is gorgeous, the editing really incredible, and the interviews are fascinating. It's a great documentary, it's funny and it was a total delight, I loved it so much. Great job to all involved!

As a Scottish person born and bred and one who visits the loch frequently and a lover of all things Nessie, I was pretty underwhelmed by this. It's a short film about the Nessie hunters and media circus that have followed the quest for the monster for decades. All the usual suspects are here. There's nothing about the monster or the actual investigations, it's more about the people behind the searches. They had an actor playing Frank Serle, possibly the most notorious Nessie hunter of them all. He died years ago so I'm not sure why this was included, it didn't really add anything as there was interview footage of him while he was alive. There's nothing new in this film or anything that can't be found by searching on YouTube. Pretty lacklustre.