Can you believe that a movie about the Loch Ness monster set in a small town, with special effects that are mildly above average manages to be an entertaining and rather tight little C grade monster movie? It’s true. It happens, even on the Sci Fi Channel here in the US. “Beyond Loch Ness” is pretty much nothing but a one note simplistic movie that really isn’t meant to be taken as anything other than a mildly campy monster picture, and that’s why it’s such a good time. In a small sailing town, Josh Riley runs the local bait shop which houses almost zero customers except for the obligatory bully who manages to stroll around with his ex on a fancy boat. His mom is the local sheriff who is called in to investigate the mysterious mutilations around town of local residents, and soon she begins to realize it’s the doings of a large man-eating creature. There are not one but many Nessie’s all of whom have landed in town to settle an old score and feast on some locals. These monsters are far from the cute Sea Horse’s we’ve seen in our local theaters. They’re carnivorous merciless creatures that can travel on land with ease and slither along without breaking a sweat.

The special effects are really not that bad all things considered. The monsters look interesting and very threatening and they have a unique appearance of a dragon and lizard mixed with the typical Loch Ness aesthetic, and surely enough it’s a winning mixture. The scenes of gut chomping on unsuspecting saps, and subsequent close-ups work with surprising effect, and makes “Beyond Loch Ness” a worthy monster movie to watch. With movies like this the actors really don’t factor into the entertainment but Niall Matter salvages an otherwise bland hero role acting as the humble everyman forced to outwit the monsters, all the while Carrie Genzel and Brian Krause serve their purpose as the resident Brody and Quinn hunting the sea monsters. “Beyond Loch Ness” shouldn’t be taken too seriously, and when you approach it with an open mind, it can prove to be a good bout of disposable giant monster fodder.

As with most of these movies, the special effects brutally tears any of the audiences attention to the narrative away with such cheesy CGI that is as unconvincing as it gets. The monster’s first attack on a local hunter with both of his legs hanging from its mouth is hysterical for the simple fact that the legs look about as artificial as the monster itself. The latex dummies posing as the random body parts are also noticeably corny and artificial with some of the models looking nothing like the actual actors. As mentioned above, “Beyond Loch Ness” is really just a retread of “Jaws” with our dysfunctional characters in a sea side town and the assembly of random strangers forced to bring down a sea lurking monster. There’s a Quint, a Brody, and even a Hooper, and the movie makes no bones about the derivations it so blatantly exploits. Brian Krause is a combination of Van Helsing, Ahab, and the aforementioned Quint living and breathing by the revenge he seeks on the monster, and interrupting the quiet life in town to find it and proclaim his desire to “help” everyone, when it’s plainly obvious he’s in it for himself. Meanwhile, I always wondered what type of town they lived in. We only see about two or three town folks at a time not including the local officers, and when they’re off hunting, or fighting the monsters, there’s no one around. Is it really that small a town that five people at a time are usually just roaming around? Where’s everyone else? I could never understand it.

For yet another low budget cheesy “Jaws” rip-off, “Beyond Loch Ness” isn’t so bad; it’s an entertaining and appealing little monster flick that takes its plot with as much of a straight face as possible, and you have to ultimately decide if you want to laugh at it, or approach it with the same atmosphere the writers seem to be striving for.

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