BENEATH LOCH NESS

Professor Egan and his team are in Scotland, on the shores of Loch Ness, to demonstrate the theory that this lake is one of the places where giant reptiles once lived. During a dive, a mysterious seismic shock causes the professor to disappear without a trace. From the United States comes the paleontologist Case Howell, sent to continue Egan's research and investigate the man's disappearance. But as the days pass, the victims in the lake multiply and sightings of a gigantic prehistoric animal become increasingly frequent. This is one of the most fascinating mysteries studied by cryptozoology, Nessie, the famous Loch Ness Monster. Its existence has been announced and then denied several times, documented and then refuted by those who have mostly turned out to be sensational falsehoods. According to scholars, Nessie should be a plesiosaur, a gigantic prehistoric amphibious animal belonging to the Mesozoic era and somehow survived extinction, still living in the depths of the famous Scottish lake. Horror cinema has rarely tackled this subject and with not particularly memorable results (just think of the 1981 horror "The Loch Ness Horror"), leaving the legendary monster to the fantasy universe for children ("Loch Ness" from 1996 or the recent "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep"). In 2001, however, the special effects artist Chuck Comisky (his visual effects are those of "The Crow") makes "Beneath Loch Ness", which we have renamed with the anonymous "Creature from the Depths of the Abyss", a little film so bland and flat that it immediately ends up in oblivion. The initial idea is not to be thrown away because, as I have already said, Nessie has never really been exploited by genre cinema and it certainly has potential, but Comisky's film starts off on the wrong foot from the beginning, presenting a repetitive and unoriginal plot, a series of forgettable characters and a flat and too slow pace. The homages to Spielberg's "Jaws" are numerous and at times invasive (when the paleontologist asks to close the lake and the sheriff refuses to do so because they are in the tourist season, a mixed feeling of compassion and indignation will overwhelm every spectator), the story struggles to get started and the final climax is so bad and poorly made that it makes you shiver. Much of the blame for the failure of this film lies with the poor quality of the visual special effects, which, although poor, are used in large quantities, even if often masked by poor lighting conditions. The director could have at least insisted on the beauty of the Scottish locations, but the suggestive landscapes surrounding the lake are completely neglected or poorly shown and made anonymous by obvious inability of someone who is not really suited to sit behind the camera (Comisky is here in his first and so far only experience as a director). The characters who populate "Creature from the Depths of the Abyss" are simple puppets that say or do stupid things, played by complete unknowns rather incapable of acting, the only known face of whom is Lysette Anthony ("Dracula Dead and Happy", "Trilogy of Terror 2"; "Talos – The Shadow of the Pharaoh"). The film's pace is strongly television-like, more suited to a multi-episode series than a 90-minute feature film. In short, one of those films that sink into the most blatant mediocrity and latent uselessness, unable to interest, entertain, or amuse. Not recommended.