FILM · 2007 · UK
The Water Horse
13 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
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In traditional Scottish mythology, the Water Horse, also known as the Kelpie, is a terrifying, man-eating bogey. The creature appears in a pleasing form to persuade unsuspecting victims (usually children) to play with it; once the unfortunate soul mounts the Kelpie, it traps its victim with adhesive secreted from its skin and drags them to a watery death. Another type of Kelpie took the form of a handsome man who targeted young women, similar to Eastern Europe's Dracula and Nosferatu. Society used these legends to protect the young by teaching them to be wary of adult strangers and dangerous natural formations. Kelpie stories come from all over Scotland and are not associated only with Loch Ness. In the 1930s, however, after the popularity of early stop-motion dinosaur films such as The Lost World (1925) and King Kong (1933), the standard image of Scottish lake monsters was revised to that of a dinosaur or plesiosaur. Their nature was later changed to be gentle, cute and adorable, because that image was better suited to creating a tourist attraction. The association of these monsters specifically with Loch Ness arose when the first published photograph showing such a creature was taken there around 1933. After this photo (known as the Surgeon's Photo and frequently seen in this film) became world-famous in 1934, several similar monsters were "sighted" in various parts of Canada and given names such as Ogopogo and Cadborosaurus. Happy novelties in the news were popular during the Great Depression and were therefore widely covered. The fact that these "sightings" suited the entertainment culture and tourism industry so well suggests the phenomenon was commercial rather than biological.
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The iconic photo shown in this film, taken by the "Surgeons" and claimed to show a monster, was cropped so that the object in it would appear large, but the unaltered photo shows a very small object in the middle of Loch Ness. If it is not simply a toy submarine with a "head" attached (as one of the original presenters allegedly "confessed" in the 1970s), it could also be the forehead and trunk of a local circus elephant swimming in the loch when the circus was not putting on shows.
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Although it is referred to as a Dick King-Smith adaptation, the film's story is almost entirely original. King-Smith's short book is a simple tale of children raising a baby Loch Ness Monster. While it provided a basic springboard for the plot, the book lacks enough drama, incident and character development for a feature film. The adaptation had to improvise by creating numerous new characters and situations, and it reset the film's chronology from the early 1930s (just before the first Loch Ness Monster rumors were heard) to the harsh, turbulent 1940s, when the Second World War was ongoing.
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The film's visual effects were handled mainly by the New Zealand visual effects specialists Weta Digital and Weta Workshop, who had largely made Crusoe. Most of the film's roughly 600 effects shots involved Crusoe. Many of those shots involved the creature's (Crusoe's) interaction with water, an element that has always been particularly difficult to handle in the history of computer graphics.
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Body count: 2. We never see what happens to the dog Churchill, but it can be assumed he was eaten by Crusoe. We also see a new Water Horse egg at the end, and according to the story Lewis tells, when a Water Horse grows very old it lays an egg and dies before it hatches. All Water Horses are born into the world as orphans. Just before it turns black, we can hear the cracking sound of the egg hatching. This means Crusoe dies, even if it happens off screen.
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