Den of Cin

Devin & James are back in the Den with another trip (and we mean TRIP) around the world with a look at STRANGE INTERNATIONAL WESTERNS. America may have cornered the market on the genre of its own invention, but artists from around the world have always found inspiration in Wild West mythologies, and we have picked out a few of the wildest, weirdest, and downright most bizarre Westerns from aro...

Devin & James are back in the Den, and we're ready to hit the road with special guest CASEY O'CONNOR! This time we're deep diving into one of the most unique movie series ever created, THE MAD MAX SAGA! From the grimy exploitation charm of MAD MAX, through the high-octane thrills of THE ROAD WARRIOR and BEYOND THUNDERDOME, to the violent elegance of FURY ROAD and FURIOSA, there is...

Devin & James are back in the DEN OF CIN with a tribute to actor/writer/director ROBERT DUVALL! Few other artists have had such a long lasting impact on the art form as Duvall, with parts in many of the most important movies ever made, in both supporting and lead roles. We start off with a list of the expected must-see classics, such as The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, M*A*S*H, and Network (to n...

Devin & James are back in the Den for a career retrospective of one of Hollywood's greatest curmudgeons: GEORGE C. SCOTT!! We've been promising this one for years, and it's finally here. We've selected a handful of our personal favorite Scott performances, starting with Paul Schrader's notorious sleazeball thriller HARDCORE. Next, we ride the streets of 1970s Los Angeles wi...

Devin & James are back in the Den one more time in 2025 for our final 50th Anniversary celebration of the films of 1975! This time we focus on the ODDBALL MOVIES of '75, those that are too wild or weird to easily fit into the other categories in our series. We begin with a couple of moody films written by Thomas McGuaine: Stoner cowboys Jeff Bridges & Sam Waterston rustle cattle in RANCHO DELUXE,...

Devin & James are back in the Den for another look back at the year in cinema that was 1975, this time focusing on THE EXPLOITATION FILMS of 75! This episode is not for the easily offended. We start with the blaxploitation classic BUCKTOWN, starring Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, and Thalmus Rasulala. Then we pivot to the bizarre indie WELCOME HOME, BROTHER CHARLES, featuring a murder weapon that...

Devin & James are back in the Den, and they're handing out full-sized candy bars to all the trick or treaters! Friend of the show Casey O'Connor returns to help us celebrate Halloween with a discussion of 1980s stand-alone SLASHER MOVIES that never became sequels or franchises (sorry, Freddy, Jason, Michael, and Chucky). We start by getting aboard the TERROR TRAIN, followed by the weir...

Devin & James are back in the Den to start Spooky Season with a 50th anniversary celebration of the HORROR MOVIES OF 1975! We begin by rediscovering the nihilistic classic THE STEPFORD WIVES. Next, we debate if the masterpiece PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK and the underseen THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD are even technically horror movies, or rather films so unique that they defy genre classification....

The incorrect file was uploaded yesterday, 9/18. This is the corrected file. Sorry for any confusion. Devin & James are back in the Den! And we're celebrating more 50th anniversaries for the iconic year of 1975. This time we're covering 1975's TOUGH GUY MOVIES! Ranging from over-the-top action to gritty neo-noir, some of our greatest movie stars of the era were busy making this yea...

Devin & James are back in the Den to celebrate the 50th anniversary of some fantastic and influential films coming from Asia in 1975! We start with one of our favorite monsters in the Kaiju classic THE TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA! We then take to the streets with Kinji Kukasaku's brutal yakuza tale COPS VS. THUGS. Then things get more kung fu classical in the origin story of one of cinema's cooles...

Devin & James are back, and they're gonna need a bigger podcast. That's why they've brought back special guest CASEY O'CONNOR to discuss the blockbusters and award nominees of 1975! We start with a little film called JAWS, which some of you may have heard of before. We then move on to the Best Picture winner, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, followed by the Kubrick comedy (...

Devin & James are back in the Den with special returning guest star, CASEY O'CONNOR!! We needed an extra hand to take on the first episode of a new ongoing series about the cinema of 1975, with our first deep dive being into all the huge CULT FILMS of '75, celebrating their 50th anniversary this year! We start at the top with the iconic ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. We then take that time...

Devin & James are back in the DEN to conclude their discussion about one of the greatest American actors ever to hit the screen, GENE HACKMAN! This time around, we reach into some slightly more obscure territory. We get into his early Western work, in THE HUNTING PARTY and BITE THE BULLET. We also discuss two films he made with a frequent collaborator, Arthur Penn: the underappreciated TARGET...

Devin & James are back in the DEN to pay tribute to one of the greatest performers of all time, GENE HACKMAN! Gene Hackman may have retired from acting 20 years before his unfortunate passing earlier this year, but in his five decades of filmmaking, he created a filmography that's impossible to match. In fact, we had to extend this out to two episodes. In this first of two, we discuss some...

Devin & James are back in the Den, and it's full of bats! In this episode, we are covering a very specific type of vampire... OFF-BRAND DRACULAS! These vampires may have castles in Transylvania, look hot in a cape, or have an unnatural interest in foreign real estate, but they all owe their cinematic existence to the literary existence of Bram Stoker's Dracula. We start with NOSFERATU,...

Devin & James are back in the Den to bid a final "ciao" to the TOUR OF ITALY series with a look at the violent world of POLIZIOTTESCHI movies! (or Eurocrime, for the pronunciation challenged.) Italy had a special touch with crime thrillers during their politically tumultuous "Years of Lead," and we go over some of the genre's highest points, starting with Enzo G. Castel...

Devin & James are back in the Den with their penultimate visit to Italy! This time we shift from focusing on one genre to examining a type of film that is not uniquely Italian, but they sure put their own style on: THE KNOCK-OFF. Low-budget films ripping off box office hits has always been a popular way for Producers to make a buck. Still, the filmmakers themselves can sometimes bring their ow...

Devin & James are back in the Den, and are go for launch! As we return to our Tour of Italy, this time the action will take us right into the stratosphere with ITALIAN SCIENCE FICTION! We start with the doomed visitors to Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES, a still underappreciated film that inspired a generation of Sci-Fi writers and directors. We then swing into more action with the utterly...

Devin & James are back, and we've brought fun size candy! We're taking a short detour from our Tour of Italy to celebrate Halloween, and what better way than by running a movie marathon? We take on one of the most unique series in film history: All four of the INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS films! The pod people first invade in 1956, then make an even more gruesome return in 1978, creating two...

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! W...

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 myt...

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...

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...

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...

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 t...