Director John MacLaverty’s terrific documentary Loch Ness: They Created a Monster looks at the personalities involved in the search for Nessie, the legendary monster of Scotland’s Loch Ness, during the heyday of that searching, the 1970s and early 1980s. It’s a fascinating look at the men and women who devoted large parts of their lives to try and discover solid proof of the famous cryptid’s existence.
The documentary illustrates the difference in attitudes between then and now, when scientific researchers, businesspeople, photographers, and other professionals had a more open-minded view toward high strangeness including the probability of a large, undiscovered beast living in the lake than today. That was a time when imagination felt stronger than cynicism, and skepticism was not quite as prevalent as it is now.
Among the personalities featured in Loch Ness: They Created a Monster — through archival footage and interviews, and modern interviews with family members and colleagues, as well as surviving explorers — are retired military man Frank Searle, who set up camp on a less-traveled area than did the majority of researchers, selling photos and other souvenirs to visitors; Tim Dinsdale, who shot remarkable footage of what he believed to be Nessie, which led him to continue his search for almost three decades; amateur naturalist Adrian Shine, founder of the Loch Ness Project research group, who has dedicated five decades of his life to exploring the lake; and promoter Yoshio Kou, who led a Japanese expedition to hunt for Nessie.
As might be expected, rivalries flared up between some of the Nessie hunters, and this leads to some fascinating revelations. Although archival footage and photos of Nessie are plentiful in Loch Ness: They Created a Monster, it is the men and women who spent — and for some, still spend — a good portion of their lives hoping to be the first people to bring proof of the Loch Ness Monster to the world. Cryptozoology and high-strangeness aficionados, as well as anyone interested in documentaries involving unique personalities, should find this film to be highly entertaining and interesting.
Loch Ness: They Created a Monster screens as part of the 21st Calgary Underground Film Festival, which runs April 18–28, 2024. For more information, visit https://www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/.
