Late Night with the Devil is a 2024 horror about a 1970’s late night talk show that goes horribly wrong.
What a title. It’s the 1970’s, and the world is becoming more bigger, bolder, and in some ways, scarier to the masses. What do people turn to when they’re scared? Comfort, and that comfort is found in various late night talk shows. The king is Johnny Carson’s offering, but hot on his trails is Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian). His “Night Owls” has been on since 1971, and has come close to overtaking The Tonight Show but not quite.
Unfortunately, viewership has peaked for Delroy’s show and has been on a steady decline over the last year. The decline coincides with a personal issue in the host’s life, and though he managed to use the tragedy to garner the show’s biggest rating in years, it was but a mere blip. It’s now 1977, and the show Delroy and his friend/riffing partner Gus (Rhys Auteri) built is in danger of being canceled as sweep week is here. Luckily, as Halloween falls in the week, Delroy has set up a themed show to juice eyeballs on his product. From the mentalist Christou (Fayssal Bazzi) to the debunker Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), and the parapsychologist Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and her subject, the rescued-from-a demonic-cult Lily (Ingrid Torelli), these interlinked guests are unknowingly about to release something sinister onto the live set and into the homes of all Nielsen viewers.
Brothers Cameron and Collin Cairnes co-write and co-direct Late Night with the Devil, taking the found-footage subgenre and wrapping it in a 1970’s set, outfitted with the requisite 4:3 aspect ratio and 8-bit-like art (unfortunate that some of the stills were rendered by AI, but until we get large stretches of film that are non-human constructed, don’t think we should reach for the flaming pitchforks yet). Their inspiration seems to come from a lot of prior offerings; I personally see Halloween: Season of the Witch with flourishes of various possession flicks. And a healthy dose of Carson.
The emphasis on practical effects is appreciated; sure a few show their budgetary limitations, but most look like they’re right in place with the time period. Inclusion of behind-the-scenes moments shot in black and white shown during the spots Night Owls would be taking commercials give depth and a peek into what is truly planned and what is being made up on the spot. It’s not an element everyone will be in love with and I can’t say it works seamlessly in the macro framing when analyzed, but being a fly on the wall in this setup is a hell of a time.
Late Night with the Devil presents a common story applicable to any time period of the lengths, temptations, and exploitations some fame-hungry individuals may succumb to in order to achieve it. However, a couple of the decisions the script makes and the early information the Cairnes’ choose to divulge essentially lay out many of the latter runtime revelations. As cool as an opening establishing voiceover prologue is and it does establish its lead, a case can be made because of the film’s found-footage status that this is unnecessary and the character meat we get with regards to Delroy could have been sprinkled into the black and white segments. In turn, the closer the climax comes, the rules of what we’re watching or even “why” we’re afforded the opportunity to do so begin to disintegrate, especially if we’re to believe what we’re watching is cursed or was infamously too hot/frightening for television when it happened. It is likely another watch could shed light on the layered point-of-view framing.
All said, as telegraphed as parts of the last act are, it’s never a dull watch and a large part of why is the buzzy performance of Dastmalchian. Often stealing scenes in other movies, in Late Night with the Devil he gets a full opportunity to be the focal point of a feature presentation. Although the writing never fully addresses why his pursuit of the number one spot is so important and what this in turn means for everyone around him, it is to the testament of Dastmalchian’s talents through his mannerisms and stage presence that we’re still generally able to get a sense that Delroy is not purely a fame whore. Can’t give all the credit to him, each sizable supporting character brings something appreciated to the proceedings, and seeing each navigate the ambiguity, eeriness, and complexity of the situation is a fun time within the movie.
The feeling is a good one when a movie locks you in very quickly. Late Night with the Devil uses its setting and “this all happens in the course of one day/night” mechanic well, paired with and in some ways carried by a great Dastmalchian performance. And even if it loses some propulsion by the end, it’s hard not to fall under its spell of bedazzlement.