Brian Buccellato Talks Comics, Suspense, and Inspiration Behind ‘Sons of the Devil’

[divider type=”space_thin”]What do you know about cults? It’s an unnerving word – cults – one evocative of horror films and witchcraft, but seemingly far enough from reality their mere existence is mitigated by never touching our lives. But what if you crossed paths with one? Maybe you’d be scared they could actually hurt you, a legitimate threat in their fanaticism; maybe curiosity in its message and its appeal to loyal zealots; perhaps contempt for a danger no realer than the boogieman or ghosts, an irrational fear that concedes its power to a light switch. Sons of the Devil is that story, a suspense built from the unknown world of a cult as Travis, an adoptee, grew up to discover he was born of one.

We caught up with Brian Buccellato, writer of Sons of the Devil and the live-action short film of the same name, to talk about his series. You can also read our reviews of Sons of the Devil right here on BNP. Black Nerd Problems: Sons of the Devil largely revolves around the danger from a fanatical religious leader. What sparked your interest in telling a story based on the underground world of a cult? Brian Buccellato: When I a kid in the 80s, Satanic Panic was a hot-button topic that pervaded American culture. The idea that there were these evil cults operating in the shadows and committing ritual sacrifice was cultivated through talk shows and the media. So the idea of cults is a scary (if not dubious) part of my youth. While in high school in the 80s I read the true crime …