B-MOVIE HOSTESS: CYN RENTERIA

CYN RENTERIA aka ORIGINAL CYN aka CYNTHIA RENTERIA hosted Cynful Movies from 2019-2022. That show was another movie hosting production from Joel Stephens, whose programs Frightmare Theater and Dark Jungle Theater have been reviewed previously here at Balladeer’s Blog.

Cynful Movies is another of the Stephens projects saluting the tradition of late-night bad movie shows that presented – and often mocked – some of the worst or campiest horror and sci-fi films ever made. One of the things I like about the many film shows that Joel and company churn out is the repertory company feel. Cyn Renteria had also worked in the Makeup Department and Costume & Wardrobe Department for them.

Before starring as the hostess of her own show, this talented lady appeared as her character Original Cyn on Sprockets and Splices in 2014 and Pale Moonlight Theater from 2014-2017. The beautiful Ms. Renteria also assisted Mistress Scarlet, the hostess of Frightmare Theater, from 2017-2022.

Best of all, from 2019-2022 Cyn was simultaneously the starring hostess of Cynful Movies, on which series she got to present movies outside of just horror flicks. Original Cyn served up Psychotronic classics from additional genres, including peplums, sci-fi, mysteries and spaghetti westerns. Cynful Movies boasted at least as much of a variety of B-Movies as The Texas 27 Film Vault and the later Mystery Science Theatre 3000.   

Let’s look at some of the flicks shown by this charismatic hostess.

SCI-FI – On top of Movie Host mainstays like The Cosmic Man, The Brain from Planet Arous and The Phantom Planet:

EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS (1956) – Scientist Russell Martin (Hugh Marlowe) and his wife (Joan Taylor) help the armies of the world take on aliens who have sabotaged 10 Earth attempts at space exploration and who now want to take over our planet. Also with Morris Ankrum.

MUTINY IN OUTER SPACE (1964) – Lunar explorers pick up a fungus from caverns on the moon. They carry it back to their space station where it spreads and evolves into a monstrous form which overruns the place. Starring Glenn Langan, Dolores Faith, Pamela Curran, Richard Garland, Francine York and Harold Lloyd, Jr. in his final role.

THEY CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE (1967) – A meteor shower brings to Earth energy-aliens who clash with humanity while Robert Hutton and Jennifer Jayne work to defend our world and determine what the alien intruders want.

ATTACK FROM SPACE (1965) – Another movie shown on virtually every Bad Movie show from the late 1960s onward, this is one of the Japanese Starman (aka Super Giant) films. In this one the hero from the Emerald Planet saves Earth from alien invaders while prancing around in his ridiculous costume. See also Atomic Rulers of the World, Invaders from Space and Evil Brain from Outer Space.     

HORROR – Cyn presented flicks like:

KISS OF THE VAMPIRE (1963) – A couple experience car trouble in a European village and become targets of a vampire and his subordinates who live in a nearby castle.

THE CHANGELING (1980) – After losing his wife and daughter in an auto accident, a man (THE George C. Scott) rents a home which turns out to be haunted by the ghost of a little boy. Also stars Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas, Jean Marsh and Barry Morse.

THE NIGHT STALKER (1972) – The iconic made for TV movie that introduced gritty reporter Carl Kolchak taking on a vampire in 1970s Las Vegas. This launched a sequel and then the cult television series. Starring Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland and Carol Lynley.

THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (1961) – Oliver Reed stars as a nobleman suffering the curse of lycanthropy.

PEPLUMS – In addition to standards like Hercules Unchained, Lou Ferrigno’s Adventures of Hercules, Hercules vs the Son of the Sun God and Hercules and the Captive Women, Original Cyn hosted:

HERCULES, SAMSON AND ULYSSES (1963) – Ancient Greco-Roman heroes wind up in the Holy Land as they join forces to slay a horrible sea monster and more.

THE MAGNIFICENT GLADIATOR (1964) – A captive named Attalus (Mark Forest) becomes a gladiator, wins over the Roman audiences and thwarts an attempted coup.

HERCULES AND THE TYRANTS OF BABYLON (1964) – Peter Lupus himself stars as Hercules, who fights to free the Babylonians from an evil sorceress.

SLAVE QUEEN OF BABYLON (1963) – Yvonne Furneaux stars as Semiramis, a beautiful lady who uses strong men and powerful men to construct Babylon and make herself its queen.

MOLE MEN AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES (1961) – Maciste (Mark Forest) winds up in a subterranean kingdom where he battles mole men, a giant ape and a sinister queen.

MYSTERIES – Cyn hosted many, many Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock flicks, plus:

REHEARSAL FOR MURDER (1982) – A year after his fiancee’s murder, a playwright stages rehearsals for his new mystery play but it’s all a trap to smoke out her killer. Stars Jeff Goldblum, Robert Preston, Lynn Redgrave and William Daniels.

WESTERNS – On top of Rio Bravo, sexy Cyn Renteria presented:

BOOT HILL (1969) – Spaghetti Western in which Terence Hill stars as a gunfighter named Cat Stevens (really), who joins forces with traveling acrobats to free a goldrush boom town from its evil town boss. Also starring Bud Spencer and Woody Strode.

APACHE BLOOD (1973) – Ray Danton stars as Apache warrior Yellow Shirt, who avenges his people who were massacred by the army.

THE DEADLY COMPANIONS (1961) – Sam Peckinpah directed this tale of a gunman who atones for slaying a woman’s son by escorting the funeral carriage through dangerous Indian territory. Starring Brian Keith and Maureen O’Hara.

FOR OTHER MOVIE HOST ENTRIES CLICK HERE:   https://glitternight.com/category/movie-hosts/