What were all of our parents doing? - The Bermuda Depths (1978) Discussion

[–] fist_o_cheese 18 years ago

HAHAHAHAHA!!!
I've often wondered the same thing. It's like Village of the Damned where everybody goes to sleep at the same time and when they wake up all the women are pregnant. Weird!

FoC

reply

[–] Zaxzar 18 years ago

I remember seeing this when I was either 4 or 5. My mom was watching it with me. I remember her saying that Jenny & the turtle were connected & saying when Jenny's eyes started glowing at Carl Weather's character "that's the end of him."

"Wendy, I'm home" - The Shining

reply

[–] smoothieft3 18 years ago

Yes.After reading the post here.It seems that many of us were just kids when we were first drawn in by this movie.I was 5 at the time and my sister was 8.She remembers more of the movie that I do.If anyone needs a copy of this film on home made dvd,I have comed ebay and ioffer.com with great sucess.

reply

[–] GettnMovieBuff 18 years ago

God this is weird.......as mentioned in another post for this movie..I was about 7 or 8 also and this movie has always stuck with me....maybe it was some generation X version of the "cather in the rye." (Catcher in the Rye is the novel that was found on 3 assassins of famous people.)

reply

[–] VeronicaLodge 18 years ago

I don't really think of myself as a Gen Xer.. I like to think of myself as a "child of the 70's" .. and I think that this movie maybe defines that... LOL... Maybe we should have a "Gathering of Children Affected by this Movie"....

reply

[–] wsperling 18 years ago

I was ten when I saw this thing and it's stuck with me ever since. I moved to the beach when I was in my 20s and I've never left. I think I keep expecting that damn turtle-lady to reappear. It's creepy/reassuring to know I didn't imagine this movie.

reply

[–] [email protected] 18 years ago

Yeah, I'm with you on just how messed up it is that all of us who saw it as kids (and, yes, what the heck were our parents THINKING?) are still almost haunted by the stupid thing.
I saw a screen grab of the turtle for the first time since I was a little kid and my stomach just sank. I'm not usually affected by stuff like that. I like to think I'm a pretty level guy for the most part.
I'm going to buy a copy of this thing on good old eBay and watch it and hopefully that will stop that "haunting" feeling. I remember crying my eyes out at the end of it when I first saw it as a kid. Not out of fear or anything, but just being moved emotionally somehow. I just now remembered that.

I've seen a ton of movies over the years but this one is the only one that has really stuck with me in a creepy way. I remember seeing it air a second time maybe a year after the first. We were visiting friends and getting our coats on to leave and they had a little black and white TV on and I saw the turtle on it and begged my parents to stop and let me watch it again.

I'm really not one for consipiracy theories, but it has been shown that subliminal/psychological stuff was experimented with in the older days of TV. It's crazy the fact that the Internet searches I've done have a ridiculous amount of folks our age with the same haunting feeling of this stupid "giant turtle movie." You have to wonder if there is more to the story here than a badly done made-for-TV movie from the 70s.

When I get my eBay copy (which makes me feel a little nervous - this is so stupid!) I'm going to be sure not to let my kids watch it!

reply

[–] VeronicaLodge 18 years ago

OMG.. I never thought of the subliminal experiment theory... yeah you had better make sure your children don't watch it...
I wonder if the people who made this movie are getting a kick out of this?
In addition.. it seems strange to me that all of us have come to this site within the last year.. .. trying to find this movie...
I just find it so strange that we were all kids.. why isnt' there someone in their 40's who has come on here saying "hey I watched that too"????

reply

[–] Robbzilla 18 years ago

Well...sorry to wreck the curve, but I am 40 (just turned) and I remember watching this movie. I was also haunted by it for years and spent hours online trying to figure out who was in it and what it was called. I finally figured it out and now have a tape...and while it is less satisfying for my 40-year-old brain than it was for my 10-year-old one, it's still a great story.

Why has it stuck around in our brains? I like the subliminal message theory, but it's more likely that we were all just becoming aware of romance and sexuality and this story tied both of these together with kid-friendly monstrosities and a devastating ending. I do remember never feeling the way I felt at the end...a sort of "we're all just grains of sand in a universe of sadness" feeling. It really was tumultuous, unforgettable and...well, devastating (again) to see such a movie actually end on a downbeat.

reply

[–] joebridge 18 years ago

Yeah, the concept of just learning about "true" romance (or even "forbidden" or "dark", since the girl was like a "fictional" ocean spirit rather than fully human) and growing into the difference between the sexes, so to speak, as well as the idea of having a giant pet turtle that can eat your enemies, is probably spot-on in terms of haunting the memory.

Technically, I'm no psychiatrist, but.

Maybe Burl Ives was a hypnotist. Haha.

reply

[–] dalcby22 18 years ago

I just researched the web trying to find out about this movie that has stuck with me since I saw it as a 9 year old. This is very strange....like Close Encounters of the Third kind when all those people were attracted to Devils Tower. I remembered the girl being discoved in/near a cave and somehow was psychically connected to the giant turtle. I believe the Girl jumped overboard of an ancient ship that was being battered in a storm. Besides that...it's a blur but I would like to see it again, maybe bring back part of my childhood.

Thank You all for being connected to this movie with me and helping me find it.

reply

[–] junkie1975 18 years ago

I don't recall the year I saw it on TV, even though I know this site says it was 1978. (It was aired a few times afterwards I'm sure.) But I was born in 1975, and I remember parts of this movie. When I was real young, my mom used to allow me to stay up to watch Kolchak and other late night shows only on the condition that I would pretend to sleep so my brother and sister wouldn't complain about me being able to stay up and not them. Most times, I would fall asleep anyways, parents are wickedly cunning with this kind of bargain.

Anyways, I remember seeing the girl on a ship in a storm, and I remember the giant turtle dragging the guy into the ocean. Like many, it seems, this has somehow haunted me all these years. I remember rare few details about this movie, and a couple others from my childhood, but Bermuda Depths really stood out.

I just wish someone would rip a copy of the movie and put it on some BitTorrent sites so others like myself could relive this one moment of our childhood!

Honoris Causa...
Silverblade

reply

[–] the_zookeeper 18 years ago

I don't think any parents wanted to admit watching a giant turtle drag Apollo Creed to the bottom of the ocean.......

AND, here's ANOTHER movie or two we probably watched.

That movie with Parker Stevenson "This House Possessed"

One with Melissa Sue Anderson "Midnight Offerings"

It was a pretty good time to be a kid and watch funky movies.

By the way, I was haunted by this movie until I found it myself. I was nuts trying to remember what it was or the title. Felt like a dream or something. It took me a year or two of searching to realize I hadn't dreamt it.

reply

[–] Zaxzar 18 years ago

Yes, I watched & loved both "This House Possessed" & "Midnight Offerings." Also, other movies of that nature..."Don't go To Sleep" & "Dark Night of the Scarecrow".

reply

[–] tris09 18 years ago

I'm surprised no one over 40 remembers it. However, I think it's possible based on the age a 40+ year old person would have been in 1978, that being over 12 years old, that they had passed that impressionable age where the memories of younger childhood can be clouded by the innocents of thought. It's like revisiting the old neighborhood you grew up in and discovering how small your house was, and how that long bike ride to the arcade was actually only a mile, lol. The "forest" that you had so many memories and fears about was really a wooded section between housing developments. Once you reach 13 or so, your memories are sharper,a nd your innocents and perceptions are much closer to reality and truth. it's possible that those who watched it and were older simply were not impacted enough to remember it this many years later. Just another movie they watched like so many forgotten movies. There's my theory.

W

reply

[–] Jeepster (1025) 4 years ago

Uhhh....NO! Because I had to have been around that age when I first saw this on TV when it was first aired & I have the same memories as all of you it’s had the same effect on me as all of you. So suffice it to say psychiatry is not your strong suit.

reply

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mdombros 18 years ago

I'm 34, and me too! In fact, I am soooooo happy I finally found this movie on IMDB. I did a search under "plots" for "giant turtle".

I don't even remember anything about a pact with the devil. Just the jenny music, and jenny (holy crap, that was connie selleca?!) and her swimming off at the end.

I would LOVE to see this film again, but I'm almost afraid to, because I have elevated it to this wonderful mysterious place in my mind.

reply

[–] King_of_Rain 18 years ago

*** WARNING *** SPOILERS ***

There are various endings depending on which edited/butchered version you've seen. I've seen at least three very different versions. One version doesn't even have any of the fairly long opening with the children on the beach and the turtle and when he carves the intials, so that the ending revelation of the initials in one version doesn't even make sense if you don't know the full story.

One version ends ONLY showing the lead male character on a boat looking down at the waves and completely lacks the most important clues throughout.

Another version ends by showing the now giant initials on the turtle (unrevealed until that point that it was the same as the young turtle at the beginning), which is the most intense and complete throughout, I believe.

I've not seen any version where Jenny appears anywhere near the end. There's one version that shows she was real all along, near the end, by showing a statue on a tomb.

reply

[–] turboangst 12 years ago

I think it was the "Friday Night Big Movie" on ABC, and my parents had gone out for the evening to disco dance. So I was at home in my Star Wars pajamas with my T.V. dinner that my mother had previously prepared for me in the oven watching this movie that would haunt my memory to this day.

reply

[–] PinkPosey 11 years ago

LOL. Yes, I remember that it was ABC Friday Night Movie Of The Week too. It is so odd how all of us kids were watching this alone and were haunted by it.

reply

[–] chris338 11 years ago

I was 9. It haunted me for years until I finally tracked down a DVD copy on Ebay. I thought about the initials in that turtle for a long time. I'm 43 now. I married a slender brunette and have a thing for turtles. I stop on the highway when they are trying to cross and help them cross or relocate them to a farm with a pond when possible.

I like the subliminal theory. At the time I watched it, my parents were in the process of getting a divorce and would be divorced a year or so later. Just an emotional time and this movie stuck with me. Glad to know I'm not the only one who was haunted by this movie.

That's what power hot chicks hold over the male brain I guess. :-) Jennifer Connely is younger Connie Selleca.

reply

[–] likedavid 11 years ago

There IS something about this movie!

I only saw it only once, on its first run in 1978. I saw it at my grandparent's place up in Trinity, Texas. I remember the turtle, the girl, and the haunting ending with the giant turtle floating by with the inscription made by the main guy many years before...

Someone said this movie is somehow connected with us (those of us who saw it as a child) awaking to sexuality and all that. This might be true. It was soon after this I discovered first love. And I have never forgotten her or this movie, some 35 years later.

reply