Den of Cin

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 specime...

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 resu...

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,...

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 in...

Devin and James are back in the Den with a new topic! This time we'll explore the career of horror pioneer WES CRAVEN! And, of course, we are starting at the beginning with Craven's roughest films, THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and THE HILLS HAVE EYES. (TRIGGER WARNING: These films are very graphic.) Then we follow the course of his career into writing/directing one of the first comic book ad...

Devin & James are back in the DEN OF CIN to wrap up their series on the year in cinema that was 1994. This time we take a more personal approach. Rather than one theme tying them together, Devin & James have each picked 2 movies from 1994 that they want to discuss... just because. James gives us a backstory on why 1994 was such an important year for Hong Kong action movies becoming popular...

Devin & James are back in the Den of Cin for another installment of our series on the year 1994! And there is no way to discuss this year without bringing up the rising star of Jim Carrey! Not only was he still the hot comic from In Living Color on TV, but he was having one of those "best year ever" scenarios on the silver screen as well, with gigantic hits ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE...

Devin & James are back in the Den to take another look at the films of 1994! 1994 gave us some of the most notable contenders for the Oscar race we've ever seen. This week, we take a look specifically at the Best Picture race at the Academy Awards. Forrest Gump took the top award, but we dive into some of the other films that were nominated and didn't take home statues, specifically TH...

Devin & James are back with something new for 2024! In our FIRST of FOUR episodes covering the year in cinema that was 1994, we are taking on a handful of the indie films that changed the cinematic world forever: Kevin Smith's CLERKS, Terry Zwigoff's CRUMB, and Quentin Tarantino's PULP FICTION! It's a great way to ring in the new year with some movie gods before they were movie...

Happy Halloween and Merry Friday the 13th! To celebrate the rare occasion of double horror holidays this October, Devin & James have invited pal Casey O'Connor back to the show to discuss some of their favorite scary two-fers, three-fers, and... you get the idea. From the classic Universal Monster days, through the slasher and splatstick evolutions of the 80's, and ever after, sequels...

We're back in the Den of Cin to celebrate the fantastic streak of artistic triumphs of director Hal Ashby in the 1970s! A complicated man with a gentle soul, Hal Ashby has seemed to fall out of the conversation of being one of the most vital filmmakers of all time, based on this run of films alone. Not even most of the modern greats can stake claim to this kind of hot streak. While not always...

Devin and James are back in the Den for another episode! This time we are deep diving into the FRENCH CONNECTION films of the 1970's! We examine whether NYPD detective Popeye Doyle (masterfully played by Gene Hackman) was ever intended to be seen as a hero in the Oscar-winning 1971 original based on the true story of a rough, racist cop's obsession to thwart a French drug kingpin. We also...

Devin & James are back in the Den of Cin with another action-packed double feature! This time, we are taking on the classic Italian crime films, VIOLENT CITY (1970), starring Charles Bronson & Telly Savalas, and CALIBER 9 (1972), known as one of the greatest crime films ever produced! Both of these films are prime examples of the Italian sub-genre, Poliziotteschi, and we dive a bit into th...

Devin & James are finally back in the DEN OF CIN! We've been gone a while, but we have a great topic being covered in a double-length episode to make it up. A grab bag of movies about KILLER COUPLES! We each picked 5 films about people in love, who just also happen to make people die. From recognized masterpieces like BONNIE & CLYDE, through controversial classics like HEATHERS, and well b...

Devin & James are sliding down the chimney of the DEN OF CIN to deliver their thoughts on a couple of Holiday perennials! This time we're taking on a couple of cynical satires, SCROOGED with Bill Murray and BAD SANTA with Billy Bob Thornton. These films are at once so rude and raunchy, yet filled to the brim with the Christmas Spirit. A delicate balance that has never quite been perfected as w...

Devin & James are back in the Den with a doozy of a double feature! This time we're driving along the wrong side of the tracks with a couple of hard-nosed, highly-stylized neo-noir crime movies. THIEF (1981) and DRIVE (2011) feel like they share DNA (along with THE DRIVER (1978), which gets more than an honorable mention from us). With plots that seem deceptively simple on the surface, these f...

Happy Halloween, Cinemaniacs!! Devin & James are back in the DEN OF CIN, and they've brought along BFF of the show Casey O'Connor with them! In honor of our favorite holiday, we're discussing the film adaptations of STEPHEN KING!!!! Possibly the only American author to become his own sub-genre in the cinema canon, King adaptations have been a part of the celluloid landscape since 1976's CARRIE...

"Beware of The Blob! It creeps, and leaps, and glides, and slides across the floor. Right through the door, and all around the wall. A splotch, a blotch. Be careful of The Blob." So warns the catchiest pop tune ever to open a monster movie. Devin & James are celebrating the start of the Halloween Season with a look back at one of the most fun, and underrated, horror/sci-fi series of the 20th c...

Devin & James are back in the Den of Cin just in time to finish out the summer of 2022 with a look back at the summer of 1982! And they've brought along special guest Casey O'Connor to share his memories of one of the most influential summers the box office has ever seen. E.T., The Thing, Blade Runner, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Tron, Rocky III, The Road Warrior, Poltergeist, and Fast Ti...

Devin & James are back in the Den to analyze a sample of classic Plague Movies: Taiwan's brutal THE SADNESS from 2021, and vintage David Cronenberg with 1977's RABID! We also make a quick examination of the contagions and parasites unsealed in George A. Romero's THE CRAZIES and Cronenberg's own SHIVERS, and how these films all feed upon each other so nicely. Are these films as depraved as thei...

Devin & James are back at Crystal Lake for the conclusion of our deep dive into the FRIDAY THE 13th SERIES! Love 'em or hate 'em, the back half of this iconic film series has given us plenty to talk about. From the start of the Zombie Jason era, to a lake trip to NYC, to Hell and back, to outer freakin' space, and then back to meet an old foe in need of a severe manicure, these films really ta...

Devin & James bring you a Friggatriskaidekaphobic's nightmare. If you don't know your phobias, that's the fear of FRIDAY THE 13th!! In our first deep dive into a particular film franchise, we visit Pamela Voorhees and her son JASON deep in the forest (for now) to find out what makes these first movies in the series so influential. One of our favorite series of all time, we found so much to say abo...

Devin & James return to the DEN OF CIN to discuss action icon MICHAEL BIEHN. From his breakout one-two punch in THE TERMINATOR & ALIENS, through his bad guy turn in TOMBSTONE, to his current slate as writer/director/star of indie horror flicks, Biehn has always been one of the more interesting, and perhaps misunderstood, of 80's action stars. We get into a few of his early and mid-career h...

Devin & James are serving up a treat in the DEN OF CIN. It's an unlikely and weird double feature of CANNIBAL FILMS! First we get into Paul Bartel's 1982 cult comedy EATING RAOUL, starring Bartel, his longtime collaborator Mary Woronov, and Robert Beltran in the title dish... er, we mean role. Then we dive into a very recent film for a change, the 2022 Hulu "meat cute", FRESH. Directed by Mimi...

Devin & James have brought their ol' buddy Casey O'Connor back to the Den of Cin to pay tribute to yet another legend we have recently lost, Ivan Reitman. Reitman was prolific as a writer/director/producer, and to try listing all his accomplishments in this space would be an exercise in futility. We do our best to jam in as much as we can, from his trashy exploitation roots through some of the mos...