by SARAH ROWLAND

Apparently, there's no limit to how many films-within-a-film a director will squeeze into one production. Here, legendary German filmmaker Werner Herzog offers us a three-for-one special. For the most part, we experience Incident at Loch Ness through John Bailey's camera lens. He's meant to be shooting behind-the-scenes footage for his project Herzog in Wonderland, a biography about the award-winning madman.

Meanwhile, Herzog is supposedly working on his own documentary, Enigma of Loch Ness, an exploration into the collective dreams of people who believe in Scotland's notorious Nessie. Everyone plays themselves, but who's in on the gag and to what extent is something viewers have to figure out on their own. Obviously, co-producers Herzog and Zak Penn (the credited director for Incident at Loch Ness) know the real deal, but various interview subjects and certain crew members could very well be on the outs.

In real life, Penn is a fairly successful Hollywood screenwriter (Behind Enemy Lines and Last Action Hero), who appears to have been on the receiving end of an industry assfucking on more than one occasion. He takes full advantage of his alter-ego role as the clichéd megalomaniac producer by constantly compromising Herzog's artistic integrity and threatening to can anyone who won't follow his orders. This mounting tension between Penn and his cast leads to a hilarious scene in which Herzog mocks his own bullying tactics on the set of Aguirre: The Wrath of God, where he allegedly pulled a gun on his star Klaus Kinski.

At times Penn's character can be contrived, like when he sneaks a mysterious tech support employee on board the excavation liner and insists she strip down to a star-spangled string bikini. But before the film can turn into a cheap Christopher Guest knock-off, it cuts to an interview clip of Werner after the boat has docked, where he reflects back on the thong-clad worker with a pained look of constipation: "She was supposed to be a sonar operator entz… she didn't look like a sonar operator." It's his desert-dry delivery and willingness to make fun of his own legend that puts Incident at Loch Ness in a class all its own in the silly willy world of mock docs.

Incident at Loch Ness opens at Cinéma du Parc Friday, Oct. 8

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