The Bermuda Triangle (1978)

Am I Missing Something?

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

René Cardona Jr. gave us Tintorera, a Susan George star vehicle about the Mexican version of Jaws and Guyana: Crime of the Century, which somehow included Stuart Whitman as Reverend James Johnson leading Johnstown, along with Gene Barry and Joseph Cotten. If these things warm your heart, you're reading the right website.Based on Charles Berlitz's best-selling book, this one has it all. Atlantis. A possessed doll. Black characters dubbed to sound like they're coming straight out of Amos 'n Andy. And John Huston. Yes, that famous director. That guy.The Black Whale III has set sail for the Bermuda Triangle with the Marvin family leading the way. Sure, they're looking for Atlantis, but mostly they just argue with one another. Finding a doll in the water, the family's young daughter Diana becomes possessed, telling people how they'll die and locking the cook in the freezer.Oh yeah - there's also a scuba diving expedition that leads to the oldest daughter getting her legs crushed and her father just can't decide whether or not to cut her legs off. Such is the drama of this film.People start getting killed off until the desperate captain tries to call other ships for help. They end up hearing multiple distress calls, including their own being played back to them. When they finally reach someone, they learn that everyone on board died ten years ago. All that's left is the doll floating in the water.Claudine Auger (Black Belly of the Tarantula) shows up here, livening things up somewhat. This film is strange, as it wants to be about so many things while struggling to be about anything. And as mentioned before, the near minstrel show dubbing of the black cook is quite troubling at worst or hilariously inappropriate at best.Let me reiterate: Hollywood legend John Huston is somehow in this piece of crap. Oh the 1970's, when once big time talent would show up in the strangest of films!I found this for free on Amazon Prime, so I recommend you do the same. The doll parts are at least somewhat cool, as is the atonal soundtrack and poor dubbing.

Why on earth would a 10-time Oscar nominee, i.e. John Huston, consent to work in this excruciatingly cringeworthy waste of celluloid? Was someone blackmailing him with pics from his nude modeling days?Anyway. Oh yea, my guess is this is less a movie and more of a tax shelter designed to hide the losses from Huston's huge investment in the "pet rock" fad of the 70's.If that's the case, it's the most exciting part of this schlock.

I saw the name of John Huston in the credits and since it had the title of THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE I had high hopes that this might be a scary movie featuring the stuff of legend where some boat passengers get lost and find themselves battling demonic forces . I thought wrong because this is bland nonsense of the worst sort It's not really the sort of film that concerns itself to getting to the bottom of the mystery of the Bermuda triangle which is fair enough . What it is totally guilty of is failing to compel and chill the audience . You want people to be scared for their mortal lives ? Bad idea to dub the actors in that case . You know these dubbed porn videos of the 1980s where characters have the best sex of heir lives and they speak like they're repeating their grocery list ? Well that's what it sounds like here . No matter what happens to whoever in what ever situation they speak in a bland monotone . You'll also lose count the number of times someone speaks without opening their mouth so obviously this stretch of water causes people to become telepathic The screenplay is very plodding in its nature , there's very little incident so the director tries to spice things up by adding creepy music which is totally ineffective and soon outlives what little welcome it initially had and soon becomes irritating . It's possibly the worst film made hat features The Bermuda Triangle as its premise

Rene Cardona, Jnr was arguably the most recognisable Latin exploitation film maker in the late seventies through mid eighties, and his brand was easily identifiable through his use of fading American character actors and gory special effects. Disappointingly, that brand is conspicuously absent here, with John Huston in a relatively brief supporting role, the only 'marquee' import, and little to none of the gory special effects usually synonymous with a Cardona picture.The plot concerns the usual spate of mysterious disappearances converging on the Bermuda Triangle, while research vessel inadvertently sails into a maelstrom of intrigue and bizarre occult activity that seems to centre on a creepy-looking doll that is found floating in the ocean. It soon possesses the youngest child and in turn manages to wreak havoc amongst the rest of the crew, until, mysteriously, just a handful of weary survivors remain.Perennial Cardona leading-men Stiglitz and Garcia make an amiable cinema coupling, and they continue their reliable presence here, with the once-sultry Marina Vlady and former bombshell Claudine Auger largely wasted in shallow supporting roles. Miguel Fuentes as a chiselled, Neanderthal looking mechanic is unintentionally hilarious at times, as he randomly emerges from the small engine room door to taunt the spooked passengers with doomsday prophecies, before returning to the ship's bowels to inhale more petrol fumes and envisage even more facile tales of terror for his next appearance.While not totally inept - some unsettling suspense, good sets, colour and sound in particular - the special effects are profoundly amateurish and the dialogue is at times, painfully puerile. The possessed doll on which the story centres however does convey a certain Argento 'esque feel which is plainly scary (watch for those unnerving close-ups of the doll's face - creepy). Not your typical Cardona-style picture, and probably more accessible as a result. Average, but worth a look.