The sea has always been the source of great horror stories that have scared everyone who has approached its mysteries for generations. And it is not for less, because its depths have always represented the horror of the occult. Of what cannot be understood.
Surely since the human being knew the great expanses of water that run through the planet, the oceans have inspired a multitude of legends related to monsters and disappearances. From the sea creatures that waited to devour ships on the fringes of a world thought to be flat, to the cosmic primal Lovecraftians that terrorized in the marine darkness. Passing, of course, through the most mundane and equally terrifying creatures worn by authors like Verne in their Twenty thousand leagues of underwater travel or Spielberg and his breaker Shark. Reaching out to the sea has always been a success to scare the viewer or reader.
But there was a legend, much more modern, who decided to combine a little of all these horrors and cover them with a layer of mystery without equal. This is the story of the famous Bermuda Triangle, in which Dénia was a participant to spread his horror.
From the Devil's Triangle to the Bermuda Triangle
Who has not heard of the famous triangle? It is an area of more than one million square meters between Miami, Puerto Rico and the Bermuda Islands, from which it receives its name. However, it was first baptized as Devil's triangle, since it was a place where there was multitude of shipwrecks and disappearances of ships, boats and planes without a supposed explanation.
But it was not until the 50s of the last century that the legend began to be made known through the media, which, little by little, echoed the events. In one of the many articles the term could be read for the first time Bermuda Triangle, and there was no going back.
In the 70s the myth finally became popular through literature and cinema, recounting thousands of events that happened in the place, trying to give an explanation to what, until now, was inexplicable.
The sea that attracts the legend
Not only does it happen with the famous triangle, but the truth is that they have always gone hand in hand the legend and the Marine, so it is not surprising that coastal places are full of stories of disappearances. And Dénia was not going to be less.
To begin with, the capital of the Marina Alta it has a long history of shipwrecks on its coastline. They know each other more than a hundred ships that rest in the depths of the Dianense coast, either because of the very particular weather conditions in our area, with winds that the Montgo pushes in unexpected directions or with a temperature that shows great differences with neighboring towns such as Xàbia, or by the coastal geography and its corals and threatening rocks. But even today we remember more than one accident of modern ships in the port and its surroundings.
Now, this does not mean that there is a great mystery like the one found on the American coast. However, still yes influenced so that Dénia was chosen to represent the Bermuda Triangle in search of a young married couple who disappeared while traveling through the mysterious place.
Dianense abyss
It was in 1979 when the producer of Encounter in the abyss decided that Dénia was the setting to tell this film horror adventure, where they were shown multiple disappearances supposedly occurred in the aforementioned triangle. Of course, they were being recorded thousands of kilometers away.
When the father of the bride learns of the disappearance of the newlyweds, he undertakes an incessant search with teams of divers where they will end up discovering that -spoiler alert- that which threatens those who pass through the Dianense Bermuda Triangle is no other something that a group of aliens who had crashed with the ship in its depths.
In the film you can see scenes shot on the coast of Dénia and in its port and marinas, which were part of this low-budget work and, certainly, little impact. For days, the city was again visited by recording teams with the intention of scaring, at least, the Italian and Spanish public, since the production was the result of collaboration between both countries.
The history of the sea of Dénia is still waiting to be told on the big screen, but while it has been able to serve its horizon to represent a multitude of cinematographic works over the years. This is only one case of so many, and not even the one that has transpired the most, but one that reflects, once again, the role that the city has had and has in the film industry.
