Whatever happened to concerns about the Bermuda Triangle? That subject garnered lots of attention in the 1970s, but I can’t remember the last time the myth enjoyed any cultural relevance.

We head back to the glory days of Triangle Mania via 1978’s The Bermuda Depths. Magnus Dens (Leigh McCloskey) continues to feel the impact of his father’s death years earlier, and he travels to Bermuda in an attempt to learn the cause.

There Magnus encounters his father’s former colleague Dr. Paulis (Burl Ives) and his assistant Eric (Carl Weathers). Eventually they deal with a mix of issues that include mysterious beauty Jennie Haniver (Connie Sellecca) and a giant, killer sea turtle.

To my surprise, Depths comes from the production team of Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass. Best-known for holiday fare like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, they seem like improbable choices for a tale such as this.

Also to my surprise, I boast no memory of Depths. It ran on ABC in the US early in 1978, and as a kid who loved this sort of material, I’d think I would’ve wanted to see it.

Perhaps I did watch Depths 43 years ago but felt so underwhelmed by the film that it left my noggin decades ago. Based on this screening, I couldn’t blame my 10-year-old self for his suppression of those memories, as this becomes a silly snoozer.

Apparently this would leave me in the minority, as Depths appears to enjoy a cult audience made up of folks who saw it as kids and it stayed with them. Many IMDB reviews discuss the impact the film had on them decades ago.

I will say that Depths boasts stronger production values than I would expect from a circa 1978 TV movie. Sure, some elements showed their age – mainly via some clunky visual effects – but shot on 35mm film, Depths offered stronger production values than anticipated.

While this means Depths looked pretty good, the rest of it flops entirely. Despite a story that should offer plenty of mystery and intrigue, Depths tells its tale in the slowest, least interesting manner I could imagine.

We go about one-third of he way into the movie before we get any hint of Jennie’s unconventional status, and the monster turtle makes its first implied appearance around the same time. Even then, the story remains slow, as it prefers gauzy shots of Magnus as he moons over Jennie to real development or intrigue.

Honestly, Depths often feels like two separate screenplays crammed into one. The Jennie and giant amphibian tales don’t connect in a particular smooth manner, so each side competes with the other in an awkward, clunky manner.

Of these two, the turtle side becomes the more interesting. Sure, it blatantly rips off Jaws, but at least it occasionally shows a minor pulse.

Then we find ourselves stuck with sluggish, tedious “romantic” scenes that involve Jennie and Magnus. These feel like excerpts from a 1970s soft core porn flick that chopped out the nudity and sex.

The Jennie/Magnus scenes also suffer because neither McCloskey nor Sellecca displayed a hint of acting talent. Depths marked Sellecca’s debut, and she couldn’t look much more stunning, but her performance leaves a lot to be desired.

Still, since Jennie exists mainly as a beautiful object of desire, Sellecca doesn’t actively harm Depths. Because he needs to take an emotional journey, though, McCloskey’s version of Magnus turns into a major issue, as he leaves a huge gap at the heart of the story.

Better actors, Weathers and Ives offer more than adequate performances, even if old Burl leans campy at times. Hey, who can blame him? Ives probably sensed he found himself stuck in a clunker and figured he’d attempt to enliven the proceedings by any means necessary.

Nothing about the core story of Depths dooms it to failure, as a movie about immortal aquatic temptresses and giant killer turtles seems promising. Unfortunately, the end result feels slow, dull and silly.

The Bermuda Depths appears in an aspect ratio of both 1.33:1 and of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This happens because we find two versions of the film.

In addition to the US ABC TV presentation at 1.33:1, we get an “International Theatrical” edition at 1.85:1. In terms of content, both run an identical one hour, 37 minutes, five seconds, so it seems highly unlikely that we find any differences between the two other than their aspect ratios.

Based on comparisons, I saw no indications the 1.85:1 did anything other than simply crop the tops/bottoms of frames. The question became which ratio represented the material as intended.

I thought the producers shot Depths specifically for TV, which would imply that 1.33:1 should become the way to go. However, according to this disc’s commentary, Depths initially intended to run theatrically, so perhaps 1.85:1 better represents the OAR.

Whichever one you choose, you’ll find pretty terrific visuals, much better than one might expect from a late 1970s TV movie. The only minor issues arose from occasional “day for night” shots, as those could seem a bit opaque.

However, those “concerns” clearly stemmed from the source, so I didn’t fault the transfer. Otherwise, low-light shots brought nice clarity and delineation, while blacks were deep and dense.

Sharpness worked well. Very little softness appeared, so the movie consistently felt accurate and well-defined.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and I saw no issues with edge haloes. A light layer of grain implied no concerns with noise reduction, and print flaws failed to mar the presentation.

With the movie’s bright tropical settings, colors excelled, as they seemed vivid and bright. I didn’t expect much from a 43-year-old TV movie, but Depths looked great.

I didn’t find anything as impressive via the film’s mediocre DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack, as it lacked punch. Speech seemed somewhat stiff, but the lines remained intelligible and only occasionally displayed edginess.

Music showed acceptable definition, but the score and songs lacked range and felt a bit dull. The same went for effects, as they remained accurate enough but they didn’t deliver much obvious impact. This turned into a decent mix for its era and origins.

The movie provides an audio commentary from film historian Amanda Reyes and Kindertrauma founder Lance Vaughan. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story and characters, cast and crew, various production areas, notes about the Bermuda Triangle, other genre films of the era and some connected domains.

Reyes heavily dominates the track, and that seems fine with me. Vaughan occasionally tosses in decent notes, but he mainly throws in jokes and asides.

Tremendously prepared, Reyes delves into a lot of useful topics, and she gives us quirky facts like what TV competition Depths faced and how it fared in the ratings. Reyes turns this into a solid track.

Even based on the low standards of late 1970s TV movies, The Bermuda Depths flops. Boring, incoherent and ridiculous, the film delivers a forgettable 97 minutes of cinematic nonsense. The Blu-ray brings excellent visuals along with adequate audio and a commentary. Skip this sub-mediocre stinker.