Late Night with the Devil is a supernatural horror film written and directed by Colin and Cameron Cairnes [100 Bloody Acres]. After first screening at South by Southwest, it came to UK cinemas in March 2024, and was released on streaming service Shudder on Friday (19th April).
The film is set on Halloween night, 1977, and takes place within the world of the fictional late-night talk show, Night Owls with Jack Delroy. The success-driven and slightly oleaginous Jack is played by David Dastmalchian [The Suicide Squad]. Dastmalchian’s newly launched production company, Good Fiend Films, was one of the many production companies that worked on the film. I timed all of the production and distributor title cards to a staggering 1 minute 45 seconds!
The film opens with documentary-style montage, setting the scene of the late 1970s in the US with familiar images of the satanic panic obsession and political upheaval, establishing a time of “unrest and mistrust, fear and violence”, before segueing into found-footage material. The attention to detail in this picture is remarkable, even providing temporal context within its 16:4 aspect ratio.
Before sitting down to watch the film, I imagined it would be something like a cross between The King of Comedy (1982) and Ghostwatch (1995), the ill-fated BBC hoax programme. These preconceptions were not too far off the mark, but there were nods to classic horror titles too, most noticeably William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1974). At present, we seem to be bombarded with anachronistic content, and whilst I think it’s good fun, I absolutely love the attentiveness this film has given to its setting. That being said, my knowledge of 1970s American late-night talk shows is entirely based on film references so take that as you will.
The viewer soon learns of Delroy’s connection to the “The Grove”, an unsettling source of intrigue that begins to build his character. The amiable unctuousness of Delroy isn’t expressly on-the-nose, but it’s ever present and our distrust of him aids in the film’s ability to utilise tension. The opening sequence also drops some not-so-subtle hints but it’s not anything that isn’t already teased by the film’s interpretational title. Unfortunately, I think the film’s exposition gives too much away too quickly, and it would have been better for these tidbits of information to occur in a more organic nature, i.e. show don’t tell.
Delroy is facing falling ratings after the death of his wife, and thus the fictional show is hosting a Halloween special, with a cast of occult-related guests. These consist of Christou [Fayssal Bazzi], a psychic medium, Carmichael [Ian Bliss], a sceptical magician, and finally, Dr. June Ross-Michael [Laura Gordon] and Lilly D’Abo [Ingrid Torelli], the parapsychologist and her possessed subject.
The format of the film contains segments of the show with behind-the-scenes footage during the what would be ad-breaks. Although this doesn’t really make much sense and it does hinder the suspension of disbelief, it’s necessary that we see the characters in some way when they are not in the performative mode the talk show set requires them to be in. I think these scenes are in black-and-white to patch up that problem as though the filmmakers are saying, “Don’t worry, it’s still the seventies!” The problem is the source of the film’s unease comes from the fact that we’re willing to believe it’s a real show, and these scenes break this willingness. The film’s premise tells us that this buried footage is going to “unleash evil into the living rooms of America”, but it fails to deliver on this.
Late Night with the Devil isn’t a jump-out-of-your-seat scare fest, and although it feels harsh to say this about a (somewhat) indie film, it did feel like the special effects budget rapidly declined towards the end of the film. As a credit to Torelli’s performance as Lilly, the most unnerving sequences were when she was free of any effects at all, which created a build-up that wasn’t quite met.
I believe the intention is for the real scare to come from the Faustian moral of the story, this time set against a pop-culture, irony-laden background. The story naturally evolves around Jack, and whilst Dastmalchian is utterly engaging as a performer, I can’t overlook the narrative shortcomings. The main issue is that all the horror of this unaired episode only affects Jack, and unless you happen to have some skeletons in your closet that directly relate to you being a member of a secret organisation gentlemen’s club, it’s quite unrelatable.
Late Night with the Devil is worth watching for Dastmalchian’s performance and its eye to detail. It is mainly let down by problems in the writing, as well as the characterisation of the show’s guests.
Final rating: 6.5/10
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