It’s a rare occurrence that I walk out of the cinema beaming with a grin across my face, but Late Night With the Devil was easily one of the best horror films I’ve seen recently.
It actually slipped under my radar until well after its cinematic release, and I was desperate to catch it before it left theatres, and I’m so happy I did because I had a really great time.
Following the death of his wife, Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchain) has experienced a dwindling viewership for his late night talk show, Night Owls, and has been resorting to increasingly more extreme measures to attract viewers. On October 31st 1977, Halloween night, Jack books Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), a psychic; Carmichael (Ian Bliss), a magician turned skeptic who now devotes his career to debunking the supernatural; and Dr. Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and her patient Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), the sole survivor of a mass cult suicide and who may or may not be possessed by a demonic entity called Mr. Wriggles.
As the live broadcast begins to experience a number of paranormal phenomena, Jack becomes the subject of scrutiny by his guests and from beyond the grave.
It actually slipped under my radar until well after its cinematic release, and I was desperate to catch it before it left theatres, and I’m so happy I did because I had a really great time.
Following the death of his wife, Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchain) has experienced a dwindling viewership for his late night talk show, Night Owls, and has been resorting to increasingly more extreme measures to attract viewers. On October 31st 1977, Halloween night, Jack books Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), a psychic; Carmichael (Ian Bliss), a magician turned skeptic who now devotes his career to debunking the supernatural; and Dr. Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and her patient Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), the sole survivor of a mass cult suicide and who may or may not be possessed by a demonic entity called Mr. Wriggles.
As the live broadcast begins to experience a number of paranormal phenomena, Jack becomes the subject of scrutiny by his guests and from beyond the grave.
The premise for the film is fantastic. Presented as found footage of the original master tape recording, the film opens with a documentary style narration that gives us the background on Jack’s rise to fame, the history of the show, his marriage with actress Madeline (Georgina Haig), and his connections with a mysterious organisation ‘The Grove’.
But just the idea of having a clairvoyant, a skeptic, and a girl supposedly in need of an exorcism as guests on a late night TV show is a recipe for great entertainment, and of course in true horror film style, total carnage.
The film is divided into two perspectives. The primary viewpoint is that of the studio cameras, shot as though it’s a genuine late night talk show. The secondary view is what happens during commercial breaks, usually backstage, presented in black and white.
The build of tension is just superb. It all starts off rather funny as Christou delivers some duff readings and Carmichael only serves to antagonise Jack, his guests, and the studio audience. But things really start to kick up a notch once Lilly is introduced and the unexplainable phenomena become more frequent and more violent in nature.
This is all underpinned by the pressure that Jack’s facing backstage to ensure tonight is a success, if he doesn’t get good rating’s the show will be taken off the air, and so this all builds to boiling point until everything culminates in a spectacular catastrophe.
The ending was really quite impressive, and I won’t delve into spoiler territory here but whilst there are certainly a couple of story threads that aren’t resolved quite as satisfactorily as I would have liked, the way shit hits the fan was the perfect payoff and release of all that tension the film had expertly crafted.
Dastmalchain delivers what I would argue is a career best performance as Jack. He has this smarmy but charming charisma that fits perfectly for the role of talk show host. You can understand why Jack’s willing to take such huge risks even when danger is staring him right in the face because this is sink or swim for him, and Dastmalchain conveys that so convincingly.
Most of the cast deliver great performances, but I’d like to just highlight Torelli who delivered a chilling performance as Lilly/Mr Wriggles. I’d catch moments where she’d just be staring into the camera with a slight grin on her face and it sent shivers down my spine. She balances unhinged and scared really well here, and I think that made her character so compelling for a girl who’s could simply have just been there to make the film creepy.
But just the idea of having a clairvoyant, a skeptic, and a girl supposedly in need of an exorcism as guests on a late night TV show is a recipe for great entertainment, and of course in true horror film style, total carnage.
The film is divided into two perspectives. The primary viewpoint is that of the studio cameras, shot as though it’s a genuine late night talk show. The secondary view is what happens during commercial breaks, usually backstage, presented in black and white.
The build of tension is just superb. It all starts off rather funny as Christou delivers some duff readings and Carmichael only serves to antagonise Jack, his guests, and the studio audience. But things really start to kick up a notch once Lilly is introduced and the unexplainable phenomena become more frequent and more violent in nature.
This is all underpinned by the pressure that Jack’s facing backstage to ensure tonight is a success, if he doesn’t get good rating’s the show will be taken off the air, and so this all builds to boiling point until everything culminates in a spectacular catastrophe.
The ending was really quite impressive, and I won’t delve into spoiler territory here but whilst there are certainly a couple of story threads that aren’t resolved quite as satisfactorily as I would have liked, the way shit hits the fan was the perfect payoff and release of all that tension the film had expertly crafted.
Dastmalchain delivers what I would argue is a career best performance as Jack. He has this smarmy but charming charisma that fits perfectly for the role of talk show host. You can understand why Jack’s willing to take such huge risks even when danger is staring him right in the face because this is sink or swim for him, and Dastmalchain conveys that so convincingly.
Most of the cast deliver great performances, but I’d like to just highlight Torelli who delivered a chilling performance as Lilly/Mr Wriggles. I’d catch moments where she’d just be staring into the camera with a slight grin on her face and it sent shivers down my spine. She balances unhinged and scared really well here, and I think that made her character so compelling for a girl who’s could simply have just been there to make the film creepy.
I think something also needs to be said for the excellent set design. Almost the whole thing takes place on the set of the Night Owls TV show, and so much effort has gone into every detail of the set and staging. It effectively runs as a stage play because of the static cameras and everything taking place in one room, and that’s one of the biggest things I liked about it. It looked and sounded like a late night TV show and it seemed really authentic at times.
However, there is a dark cloud that hangs over the head of the whole film and that’s the use of AI generated art. There’s a couple of special effects in the film that needed to be altered last minute, and it was revealed by directors Cameron & Colin Cairnes that AI was used to achieve this over human special effects artists.
They have tried to justify the decision, with the cast standing with them on the choice. But personally it is a shame to see algorithms being employed over people. It sets a dangerous precedent, and it’s one that needs to be stamped out before it can get worse. Late Night With the Devil may only have brief shots of such content, but if left unchecked this could quickly grow into entire creative teams replaced by AI generated content, or even worse a whole film produced entirely by a computer without any creative input from a human. It all starts somewhere, and it’s a shame that Late Night With the Devil has to be the torchbearer for that.
I had such a great time watching this, and when I left the screening I was grinning like a child. From the excellent scenario to the fantastic production design, and all held together by some great performances, particularly from Dastmalchain and Torelli. It truly is a shame about the use of AI for some of the special effects, and that shouldn’t be given the opportunity to grow. But I don’t think that means not supporting Late Night With the Devil because it really does deserve a lot of attention and praise for everything it does brilliantly.
However, there is a dark cloud that hangs over the head of the whole film and that’s the use of AI generated art. There’s a couple of special effects in the film that needed to be altered last minute, and it was revealed by directors Cameron & Colin Cairnes that AI was used to achieve this over human special effects artists.
They have tried to justify the decision, with the cast standing with them on the choice. But personally it is a shame to see algorithms being employed over people. It sets a dangerous precedent, and it’s one that needs to be stamped out before it can get worse. Late Night With the Devil may only have brief shots of such content, but if left unchecked this could quickly grow into entire creative teams replaced by AI generated content, or even worse a whole film produced entirely by a computer without any creative input from a human. It all starts somewhere, and it’s a shame that Late Night With the Devil has to be the torchbearer for that.
I had such a great time watching this, and when I left the screening I was grinning like a child. From the excellent scenario to the fantastic production design, and all held together by some great performances, particularly from Dastmalchain and Torelli. It truly is a shame about the use of AI for some of the special effects, and that shouldn’t be given the opportunity to grow. But I don’t think that means not supporting Late Night With the Devil because it really does deserve a lot of attention and praise for everything it does brilliantly.