Review of Late Night with the Devil
Late Night with the Devil (2024) Dir. Colin Cairnes & Cameron Cairnes
A brief documentary-style prologue opens new horror Late Night with the Devil, which tells of the found footage we’re about to view from the never-aired tapes of a (fictional) episode of a 70s TV chat show.
We swiftly cut to the era-accurate grainy VHS visuals of a late night NYC talk show called Night Owls. Presented by Jack Delroy, he competes for ratings with Johnny Carson and despite the loss of his wife, he returns from this tragedy to present a special Halloween episode to win viewers back.
David Dastmalchian plays Delroy, and for an actor often seen playing quirky weirdos, he does a brilliant job of delivering a likeable, and even loveable at times, late night tv host just trying his best in the “cut-throat” TV industry.
In his attempts to gain ground on Carson’s popularity, Delroy uses his comeback special to invite a number of contentious special guests to his show. These include Christou (a Ure Geller-style psychic), Carmichael Haig (a James Randii sceptic) and parapsychologist June Ross-Mitchell and her allegedly possessed subject Lilly. But can the ailing host bring his show back from the dead and resurrect his career?
The movie does well aligning its pieces with the style, technology and fashion seen in the era. Ingrid Torelli as Lilly delivers a great version of The Exorcist’s Regan, and from the chat show musical sidekick Reggie to the graphic intertitles, it all adds authenticity from the period.
The 4:3 screen ratio and ‘unedited’ footage continue this immersion but the filmmakers have interspersed this with black and white fly-on-the-wall sequences which occur backstage during the adverts breaks.
As the show progresses, the guests begin to clash based on their beliefs in the supernatural or doubting it all as pseudoscience, but Delroy slowly loses control over the whole chaotic affair. Water (and vomit) sprays the studio whilst the vintage vibes are infused with questions about how much is real or is this a publicity stunt to further various careers.
The movie owes a fair amount to BBC’s 1992 Ghostwatch - perhaps the earliest horror TV mockumentary - with Delroy in place of famous UK chat show presenter Michael Parkinson (‘Parky'). And I’d also say there's a dash of Steve Coogan’s TV comic creation Alan Partridge as well.
Yet although it adds some American aspects to its references, it sadly cannot resist going too far in some places also. The filmmakers’ previous film Lake Mungo is one of the most frightening films I’ve ever seen, but I have to say this is much more entertaining than it is scary. It even gets silly at moments and “half-hearts” its devilish premise with some poor CGI VFX and cutaways that break the 70s illusion.
However, if you go in expecting more of a satire than scares I think you’d have a better experience overall. The vintage vibes are spot-on and the whole cast make the show believable with the production design a real-stand out throughout.
And of course, the excellent Dastmalchian holds the whole film (show?) together as it slowly collapses around his ego and guilt, and from the outset the film takes a big swing and mostly hits a horror home run.
From Grave Encounters, Gonjiam and Ghostwatch, the “TV-show footage” genre is a fantastic subset of handheld horror and here Late Night with the Devil does an amazing job combining presenters like Partridge and Parkinson with the paranormal.
★★★★
4 / 5
Michael Sales
Late Night with the Devil releases on 4k/BluRay Limited Edition on 28th October via Second Sight Films @aimpublicity
