Den of Cin

Devin & James are back in the DEN OF CIN, and it's getting a little spooky in here as we continue our TOUR OF ITALY. This time we are taking on SUPERNATURAL HORROR. There were a lot of ghouls, goblins, ghosts, and witches lurking around Italy during their classic horror period, and we get things started with one of the first: Mario Bava's iconic BLACK SABBATH, starring Boris Karloff! We follow that up with the Dario Argento oddity PHENOMENA (known here in the U.S. as CREEPERS, with about 34 minutes butchered out!), before moving into lesser-seen Lucio Fulci territory with the maestro's bizarre AENIGMA. We end things on a film that defines what a forgotten cult classic can be, with Gianfranco Giagni's brain-melting SPIDER LABYRINTH. Join us to get Spooky Season started off with a BOO!

Devin & James are back in the saddle for another roundup of Italian flicks. A sampling of the cultiest of all cult genres, the SPAGHETTI WESTERNS! When Clint Eastwood rode through Spain and called it Mexico in 1964's Fistful of Dollars, it started a legit European phenomenon that would produce over 600 titles in barely over ten years! Whereas the American Westerns often whitewashed and mythologized its own westward history, the idea of the good guys always wearing white was losing steam by the 1960s, and the Italians had no sentimentality toward the Earp or James clans as historical figures. The Italian Western hero was the epitome of the anti-hero. Not so much straddling the line between good and bad, but rather stomping on it with their spurred boots. The settings may have been North American, but the politics were purely Italian. We start our discussion with the G.O.A.T., the transformative masterpiece that is Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. We then move on to the sub-sub-genre of the Zapata Westerns (set within the Mexican Revolution) with Damiano Damiani's criminally underappreciated A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL. Then we lighten the mood a bit with a couple of Westerns that border on comedies while still being bloody and wild. The master Sergio Corbucci (so much more than "The Other Sergio") takes us on a wild ride across the border and back in COMPANEROS, and we finish up with the first film in Gianfranco Parolini's super-stylized hero-in-black series, SABATA! We've wrangled all your favorite Spaghetti West heroes: Nero, Milian, Van Cleef, Bronson, Fonda, Volonte, Kinski, and so many more. But when you hear the harmonica or banjo begin playing, you better run!

Devin & James are back in the Den for more Italian scares! This time our focus is on RELIGIOUS HORROR, which has been possessing Italian horror since nearly the beginning of the genre during the sound era. We start with the immortal masterpiece, Mario Bava's BLACK SUNDAY (without which Tim Burton movies would have been very different). We then move on to our first legacy film of the series, DEMONS, the ultimate what-the-fuck popcorn demon movie by Lamberto Bava (Mario's son). Then we swing toward Michele Soavi's more artful (but still seriously gory and gross) THE CHURCH. And finally, what trip through the Gates of Hell would be complete without Lucio Fulci's classic THE BEYOND (which will burn your eyeballs out of your face, if the tarantulas don't get to them first)? Plus we get into honorable mentions for Lisa & The Devil, Demons 2, The Sect, and the other bloody entries in Fulci's GATES OF HELL trilogy. We've packed a lot into this pop culture sermon.

Devin & James are back in the Den, and this time they brought their leather vests and switchblade boots cause they're ready for the Italian POST-APOCALYPSE. The post-atomic wasteland became all the rage globally after the success of films like Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and Escape from New York, and clever (and not-so-clever) copycats began to pop up everywhere. But, as usual, the Italian filmmakers did take the proverbial yellowcake. In this episode we focus on Enzo Castellari's 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS, Joe D'Amato's ENDGAME, Lucio Fulci's WARRIORS OF THE YEAR 2072, and finally, Sergio Martino's HANDS OF STEEL. Don't forget your spiked wristbands!

Devin and James are back in the Den, and ready to take you on an Italian picnic! (If you can stomach it.) As we continue our sampling of Italian genre films, we finally hit on a few legit Video Nasties with two of the most popular and trigger warning-worthy subgenres, CANNIBALS and ZOMBIES. We start things off with scandal right away in Ruggero Deodato's CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, followed by a visit to Umberto Lenzi's NIGHTMARE CITY (Don't you dare call them zombies!). Then we move from living flesh eaters to the undead ones with Andrea Bianchi's super bizarre BURIAL GROUND, and top off the meal with (what else?) Lucio Fulci's legendary ZOMBIE! (or is it Zombie 2?) There will be something to explore for every taste but good taste. Bon appetit!

Devin & James are back in the Den, and the Den is still in Italy! In our second Tour of Italy episode, we are going back to the roots of the Italian genre/cult film era with the SWORD & SANDAL films of the 1950s and 60s, introducing film fans to the hero Hercules for the first time, and giving us our first film of the evening, Mario Bava's colorful HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD. From there, we move to the SWORD & SORCERY era of the 1980's, where we examine some films that owe an awful lot to Conan the Barbarian and The Beastmaster, starting with Joe D'Amato's ATOR, THE FIGHTING EAGLE, followed closely by Lucio Fulci's CONQUEST, and ending the show (and kind of the entire genre) with Ruggero Deodato's THE BARBARIANS (yes, the one starring the Barbarian Twins)! Join us on our quest! We promise plenty of feats of strength, loincloths, snakes, spiders, naked women, gore, and head bashing.

Devin & James are back in the Den with a new topic! We are taking a TOUR OF ITALY, an 8-episode long series, each featuring a different sub-genre created or perfected by Italian filmmakers. We begin with a journey through the shadowy dream territory of GIALLO films. These films are highly stylized murder mysteries, most with a heaping helping of gore. We offer up a sample of some great specimens, and specifically some of the great directors, in this uniquely Italian movement, with a focus on Mario Bava's BLOOD & BLACK LACE, Lucio Fulci's DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING, Sergio Martino's TORSO, and of course, Dario Argento's DEEP RED. We also go over a few other titles, as well as define the tropes that make a Giallo easy to spot, even if it's not so easy to spot that gloved killer sneaking up from behind!

DO YOU LIKE SCARY MOVIES? Devin & James are back in THE DEN to finish their four-part series on the career of WES CRAVEN! We review the final films we ever got from him as a director, deep dive into CURSED and RED EYE, and top it all off with a discussion on his second major franchise, the SCREAM series. A lot of highs and lows in this period, and we go over a lot of the studio drama that resulted in a couple of these films being far less than what they could have been, but we end on a high note with one of the most beloved slasher franchises ever created.

Devin & James are back in the Den with the third in their series on the career of writer/director Wes Craven. This time they turn their focus to the period between Freddy and Ghostface (1985-1995). We discuss all of his theatrical films during this era but put a spotlight on THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW, SHOCKER, and THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS. Not so much "lost" as underappreciated, Craven shows that in many ways he was at a certain creative peak during this time, and being unfairly held up to what Freddy Krueger had become as the 1980's wore on.

Devin & James are back in the Den for the second episode in their series on WES CRAVEN, and this time we are taking on one of the most influential villains of all time... Freddy Krueger from A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. We are focusing on the series installments that Craven participated in, covering the story arc of his ultimate Final Girl, Nancy (played by Heather Langenkamp). We'll dive into the original NIGHTMARE from 1984, as well as 1987's NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS, and 1994's NEW NIGHTMARE, and discuss the ways Craven turned the slasher genre on its head, then twisted it again, and then gave it the ultimate meta twist to finish it off.