LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL (2023)

Studio:   IFC Films/Shudder
Director: Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes
Writer:   Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes
Producer: Mat Govoni, Adam White, John Molloy, Roy Lee, Steven Schneider, Derek Dauchy
Stars:    David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli, Rhys Auteri, Georgina Haig, Josh Quong Tart

Review Score:

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Summary:

In 1977, a late-night talk show's live Halloween episode explodes with paranormal activity when a guest becomes demonically possessed.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Despite several years of moderate success and fame, late-night talk show host Jack Delroy remains desperate to save declining viewership and to finally overtake Johnny Carson in the Nielsen ratings. For a live broadcast on Halloween 1977, Jack and his producer Leo Fiske devise a paranormal-themed episode of Jack's show Night Owls whose controversy they hope will renew national attention and commercial sponsorships.

For his first guest, Jack welcomes psychic spiritualist Christou. Following two separate audience interactions, Christou suddenly writhes in apparent pain as he screams the name "Minnie" while describing a vision of an unmarried man with a wedding ring. Studio lights flicker as Christou momentarily collapses before everything returns to normal.

For his second guest, Jack introduces Carmichael Haig, a stage illusionist who also debunks supposed psychics and supernatural phenomena. Christou and Carmichael have a heated confrontation after Carmichael accuses Christou of being a phony. Jack interjects by suggesting Christou's strange message might have been meant for him, because Minnie was the private nickname of Jack's beloved wife Madeleine Piper, a former actress who tragically died from lung cancer one year earlier. Christou has to be carried away after inexplicably coughing uncontrollably and then projectile vomiting onto Carmichael.

During the subsequent commercial break, Carmichael asks Jack about The Grove, an Illuminati-like organization that Jack is rumored to be involved in. Jack dodges the question.

Jack prepares to bring out his next guests, parapsychologist Dr. June Ross-Mitchell and Lilly, a young girl who is the subject of June's new book "Conversations with the Devil." A video package explains that Lilly was the sole survivor of a deadly standoff with Szandor d'Abo, a cult leader whose followers reportedly bred children as human sacrifices for their demon lord Abraxas.

During another commercial break, June warns Jack that Lilly, who reportedly suffers from demonic possession ever since her time with the First Church of Abraxas, is becoming unpredictable. Jack's producer Leo also informs him that Christou died on his way to the hospital, but Leo wants to keep the death quiet.

Minor paranormal activity seemingly befalls the set during June and Lilly's segment. June makes the claim that Lilly is probably possessed by one of Abraxas's lesser demons, whom Lilly calls "Mr. Wriggles." Despite initially advising against it, June reluctantly agrees to conduct a live session with Lilly and her demon after Jack puts them on the spot.

In the next commercial break, Night Owls announcer Gus McConnell warns that Jack may be meddling in dark affairs they don't understand. Although Gus implores him to stop, Jack contends he is merely trying to save their struggling show.

During June's live session with Lilly, Lilly seemingly undergoes a partial transformation while restrained to a chair. Through a demonic voice, Lilly taunts Jack about various things including his deceased wife, The Grove, and a possible romance between he and June. Everyone on the stage and in the audience is shocked when Lilly's chair levitates during another moment of paranormal activity that eventually subsides.

In the following commercial break, Jack learns from Leo that several crew members quit due to the bizarre broadcast. Jack also notes that Lilly sounded like his dead wife Minnie, but Leo assures Jack that their episode is drawing a lot of attention.

To debunk the exchange between June and Lilly, Carmichael arranges a similar session with Gus as the other participant. Using a spinning watch, Carmichael hypnotizes Gus as well as the studio audience and viewers at home. While hypnotized, everyone seemingly sees Gus tear open his body when he becomes convinced he is infested with worms. Afterward, Carmichael replays the video to prove his hypnotism simply tricked everyone into thinking they saw worms and torn flesh.

Based on Carmichael's demonstration, Jack plays back the tape of Lilly's session to see if hypnotic suggestion was also involved. While advancing that footage frame by frame, Jack is stunned to see the ghost of his wife Minnie on stage with them.

Lilly suddenly enters a trance as the studio is beset by violent paranormal activity. Lilly begins glowing, with more light continuing to pulse out of her after her head splits open. Lilly uses psychic energy to kill Gus, June, and Carmichael.

Leo tries pulling Jack to safety, but Jack enters an ethereal realm where he relives several on-set memories and life experiences as nightmarish hallucinations. Following a vision of an Abraxas cult ceremony he participates in, Jack sees his wife on her deathbed. Minnie confronts Jack with the revelation that her cancer was part of the price he paid in his unholy pact to become number one in the ratings, and his soul still belongs to "them." Minnie begs Jack to end her suffering by stabbing her with a ceremonial dagger. Jack plunges the knife into her chest, but doing so jolts Jack back to reality where he has actually just stabbed Lilly on a set littered with dead bodies.

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Review:

"Late Night with the Devil's" wide release in early 2024 coincided with news regarding the 25th anniversary of "The Blair Witch Project," often considered the Holy Grail of "found footage" movies. With its longstanding popularity, "The Blair Witch Project" (review here) continues to court discourse among horror fans over how well it really works as a fright film. Less debatable is the movie's unassailable success as a monster marketing phenomenon. While I still slap my forehead in dumbfounded-ness whenever this comes up, some people vividly remember falling for the hook of "The Blair Witch Project" being "real," as there were those who somehow thought it was an actual recording of three amateur filmmakers being attacked by a supernatural witch in the woods.

Regardless of whether the PR really was that clever or some viewers were simply far too gullible, no "found footage" film will ever experience a sensation like that ever again. Normally, not being able to pull off the "found" part of the footage like "The Blair Witch Project" did is not a big deal. "The Poughkeepsie Tapes" (review here) remains terrifying in spite of knowing the whole thing is fiction. Haunted asylum investigations such as "Grave Encounters" (review here) also pull off pops of shock even though they're no more authentic than any imaginary event Ed and Lorraine Warren ever investigated.

That's not quite the case with "Late Night with the Devil" though. Its setup is more integral to immersion than the usual "found footage" frames. Taking place in 1977, the film's conceit is that it is an ill-fated episode of Night Owls, a late-night talk show constantly competing with Johnny Carson, and the wild idea to broadcast a live parapsychology session with a demonically possessed girl might finally push it to the top of the ratings. Yet even with period perfect sets, costumes, and hairstyles oozing distinct '70s style, "Late Night with the Devil" never fully feels like a decades-old broadcast, and that's an obstacle to disbelief suspension the story has a hard time circumventing.

It could be a matter of "if you know, you know," and those who "don't know" stand a better chance of falling into the film's frightful fantasy. The ones who "do know," however, are in for a less effective experience.

The IYKYK elements start with David Dastmalchian. Dastmalchian plays Night Owls host Jack Delroy. A narrator who sounds like Peter Cullen performing Optimus Prime but is actually genre veteran Michael Ironside provides background details on Delroy. Rumored to be part of an Illuminati-like organization known as The Grove, Delroy's Sisyphus climb up the late-night hill suffered its greatest setback when cancer killed Jack's beloved wife one year earlier. Following an understandable absence, Delroy came back to television, and he's sure this Halloween stunt will be the star turn he's sought his entire career.

This might not have been true when he was originally cast, but in the time since, David Dastmalchian appearances have become prolific to the point where he's eclipsed his capacity to melt into a role and is now a very familiar face, especially to genre film fans. In the same calendar year as "Late Night with the Devil," Dastmalchian featured in "The Boogeyman" (review here), "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" (review here), "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," and global blockbuster "Oppenheimer," and that doesn't even cover featured parts in Denis Villeneuve's "Dune" saga or James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad." The celebrity status this gives Dastmalchian prevents Jack Delroy from being believable as anything other than "David Dastmalchian playing another part" instead of a '70s talk show host we've never seen before and can take at face value.

There's a similar IYKYK situation with actor Ian Bliss playing Carmichael Haig. In "Late Night with the Devil," Carmichael is a stage magician with a second career of debunking supposed psychics and paranormal phenomena. Bliss is superb in the role, with presence befitting an illusionist used to playing Vegas theaters, and a smartness in his sneers that makes him a sympathetic skeptic you want to see exposing charlatans.

The irony is that Bliss does such a stupendous job of turning Carmichael into a fictionalized version of James Randi that his character comes off as a James Randi impersonation. That's probably the point, as those who know Randi will remember him from his appearances on "Penn and Teller: Bullsh*t" along with countless other television shows about psychic frauds. Randi built his reputation as an accomplished magician who became better known for helping Johnny Carson punk Uri Geller, among other bits that cemented him as the consummate skeptic in psychic research. But again, not everyone knows Randi, so the viewers who don't won't have the same hang-up with seeing every real-life parallel "Late Night with the Devil" puts in the movie.

Nevertheless, it's still another hiccup among several that can give in-the-know viewers a case of the yips that can't be quenched with a quick sip of Kool-Aid. "Late Night with the Devil" picks pieces out of pop culture ranging from "Rosemary's Baby" (review here) to "Michelle Remembers" along with true events spanning Anton LaVey's Church of Satan to the ATF raid on Waco's Branch Davidians. Many varied sources make up the bulk of "Late Night with the Devil," and when you have a working knowledge of each person or thing being mirrored, the movie plays more like a patchwork pastiche or parody that's practically impossible to accept as a unique time capsule pulled from a macabre massacre that history has inexplicably forgotten.

As a one-time watch, "Late Night with the Devil" provides a reasonable amount of eerie entertainment. Its limited substance just doesn't have legs to make it an evergreen Halloween hit like "Ghostwatch." The film leaves a couple of questions unresolved regarding exact details of Jack Delroy's possibly diabolical dealings, his wife's death, and the demon's involvement in both. Repeat viewings aren't going to deliver any new answers, making this a movie that is moderately compelling in the moment, but it has a hard time holding up to even cursory scrutiny as far as believable "found footage" concepts go.

Review Score: 60

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