Lake Monsters

Do Critics Like The Water Horse?

What are the critics saying about the new cryptofiction film about the Loch Ness Monster? Here are some snippets from a few reviews of The Water Horse. (Click on the hyperlinks to read the complete reviews.) It is really difficult to tell if the reviewers are enjoying the movie. For most of us here, we’ll go see it anyway, but I thought some of these make for intriguing reading. Charles Cassady Jr. seems the most cryptid-aware, so I’ll begin with some quotations from his critique: Film earns bonus cryptozoology points for also mentioning Loch Morar, a deep Scottish lake with [...]

Bring Forth The Track Cast of Nessie!

A few years ago, the cry across the land was to have the head of a Sea-Serpent brought to Science. I place the same kind of call out there regarding the alleged track cast of the footprint of the Loch Ness Monster collected in December 1933, some 74 years ago. Of course, we all take it to heart that the footprints found on the shores of Loch Ness were fakes made by Marmaduke Wetherell. But within cryptozoology, we must be skeptical in all directions. How many times have I heard about a “hoax” claim, especially with tracks, which has as [...]

Send A Cryptozoologist, Not A Travel Writer

Why don’t travel companies send cryptozoology authors and bloggers in pursuit of cryptids and accomodations at Loch Ness, among the Himalayas, in the Cameroons, along the Amazon, or near the veldt of South Africa, instead of travel writers? It totally amazes me that travel promotion organizations get it so wrong, so often. Case in point, there was a remarkably good initial idea from some thoughtful people at Visit Britain and Visit Scotland with the new movie The Water Horse coming out: Send some travel writers to Scotland. An example from yesterday is what they got from the computer of Sarah [...]

The Water Horse Land Sightings at Loch Ness

The Water Horse Land Sightings at Loch Ness On this section of the autoway around Loch Ness, an eyewitness once saw an unknown creature cross the road. The dirty little secret that drives two groups – the closed minded debunkers and the plesiosaur true believers – totally mad is the file on land sightings of cryptids at Loch Ness. Some researchers would just as soon completely ignore them versus looking at what the encounters mean if they are evidence of cryptids unknown in and out of the Scottish lake. The usual reaction has been one in which ridicule is used [...]

Water Horse, Nessie, and Sex

Adrian Shine, whom I understand is English not Scottish, was on NBC’s “Today Show” on Friday, December 14th. The guy almost sounded like a true believer from the Highlands. He was there to talk about the evidence for the Loch Ness Monster, and to promote the new movie, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, opening on Christmas Day. Being part Scottish, I’ve always liked the name “Water Horse” for these critters, and used it a good deal in one of my cryptozoology field guides. I think the “Water Horse” theory makes a lot of sense, and I was delighted [...]

Ponik Needs Your Love

In The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep (NY: Tarcher/Penguin, 2003), I wrote that the aquatic cryptids seen in Lac Pohénégamook are “supposedly” some of “the ugliest-headed monsters around.” But “ugly” does not translate into disrespect or unloved in my book, and perhaps it is time to send the Poniks a little more love than usual. For centuries people in Scotland have talked about a monster lurking in Loch Ness, called “Nessy.” It turns out, just a few hours away from Bangor there is talk of a similar creature named “Ponik.” Natives [...]