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Water Horse: Legend of the Deep

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Details: Written by Jonathan Jacobs

Water Horse tells the tale of young Angus McMorrow, played by Alex Etel. Angus lives a simple life in a small Scottish town with his mother and sister. The man of the family has gone off to fight in WWII AND Angus anxiously counts down the days until his father’s return. One day while foraging for random bits of anything near the local loch, Angus finds an interesting object and decides to bring it home. Upon further inspection, the object is revealed to be an egg that eventually hatches the long thought to be nothing more than legend, water horse. Fearing the consequences of wide spread knowledge of the water horses existence, Angus begins to raise the small creature on his own, hiding it away from his mother and sister. When a battalion of war men move in and take refuge in his mother’s home, Angus has a much harder time hiding the water horse. Eventually, Crusoe (the name Angus has given to his "pet") grows to a near unmanageable size. With the help of his sister Kirstie (Priyanka Xi) and the estates handyman Lewis Mowbray (Ben Chaplin), both of whom have since found out about Crusoes existence, Angus releases his friend into the Loch. The war men eventually sight the beast and much drama is sure to ensue. The ultimate fate of the animal is left in the hands of Angus and his cohorts.

There are many things that make this movie much more promising than it could have been. The cinematography is brilliant and the shots of the scenery really are quite a sight to behold. The period feels quite correct throughout and the authenticity of the time really meshes well. The acting is top notch and the talents of Ben Chaplin in this feature completely impressed me in a lot of ways. Also, Alex Etel does well in the lead role considering his minimal Hollywood experience. As a matter of fact, most of the actors in this film have minimal experience, but unless you looked it up you’d never know. Kudos to this casting director (Liz Mullane)!

There are surely some minor factual errors inside this film that may irritate some gung ho Loch Ness Monster historians, but a true to life story is not what this is meant to be. It is essentially a family film meant to entertain children and adults alike. An engaging script and a brilliant grasp of just how to execute special effects makes this a must watch for anyone interested in good wholesome family goodness. Check it out!