A handful of filmmakers looking for the fabled sea serpent of Loch Ness get a look at another sort of monster in this witty mock documentary. Under commission from producer and screenwriter
Zak Penn, notoriously eccentric German filmmaker
Werner Herzog travels to Scotland to shoot his latest film, a documentary called "The Enigma of Loch Ness" which examines the myth of the Loch Ness monster and its role in the collective unconsciousness of the Scottish people rather than attempting to capture and photograph the creature itself. As
Herzog is shooting his film, another filmmaker,
John Bailey, tags along to shoot a film about
Herzog shooting a film using the provisional title "Herzog in Wonderland." While
Herzog and
Bailey ruffle one another's feathers,
Herzog begins to suspect
Penn hired his crew more for their ability to generate "real life drama" on camera rather than their skills, especially
Kitana Baker, a supposed "sonar engineer" who happens to have been a model for
Playboy. As the production falls into chaos, neither
Herzog or
Bailey are able to complete their projects, and a pair of editors are brought in to combine footage shot by both crews into a coherent whole.
Incident at Loch Ness received its North American premier at the
2004 Seattle Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide