Late Night With The Devil - Movie Review

Critics Score - 8 of 10

General Audience Score - 7 of 10

Most of us are familiar with night talk shows such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Pretty much the undisputed king of late night television was Mr. Johnny Carson, who ruled over the talk show dominion for about 30 years, from 1962-1992 where he hosted The Tonight Show. The new movie, Late Night With The Devil from IFC, is a film about a fictional rival to Johnny Carson played by David Dastmalchian. He hosts Night Owls, a talk show that was nipping at Carson’s heels for a time in the ratings and overall number of viewers; but couldn’t quite get over the hump. I’m not a massive late night talk show guy, I never watch any these days, but being familiar with the retro shows and style, I immediately took a liking to this film. Dastmalchian has such an engaging look, he’s attractive enough to pull off the late night host but looks strange enough that you could totally see him being a serial killer. Throw him in the middle of a tv production set in front of a live studio audience and you’ve got a delicious recipe for a cinematic treat. This film might not work as well for younger audiences that aren’t into the retro style, or work for straight up horror fans as the film is light on actual scary moments. This film mostly stays in the realm of thrilling, although I thought it was cool as hell. But from almost the outset I was grinning from ear to ear with giddiness as this Late Night movie was way more fun than you’d ever think you’d have spending an hour and a half With The Devil.

SYNOPSIS - We’re taken to an empty 1970’s television talk show studio, the camera slowly pans in on a TV set sitting in front of the empty chairs, the set displaying only the black and white lines of the white noise static. As we approach the set, the noise disappears and the screen fills with images of the 1970’s. Explosions from the Vietnam war, protests, a newspaper that’s front headline reads “Revolution”, as well as other acts of violence associated with the turmoil of the time fill the screen. As the clips continue, we begin to see newspapers articles about renewed interest in the occult, we see people chanting, slicing their hands open, flames, headlines about cults and sacrifices. A voice begins some narration, “April 4th, 1971, the first episode of UBC’s Night Owls goes to air.” We watch the popular Chicago radio announcer Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) walk out on stage in a dark brown suit and greet the audience for the first time of what he says he hopes will be many shows. More narration about the show gaining traction while showing us clips of sketch comedy, games and musical performances, we hear, “Night Owls with Jack Delroy captures the hearts and minds of midnight America.” More exposition about how Jack helps a troubled nation forget its worries and the following year he signs a contract with the network to host the show for another five years. He’s married to a stage actress Madeleine Piper (Georgina Haig) with whom he has a great relationship and she’s referred to as his muse. But he’s also involved with a secretive group of men called The Grove, a cultish organization for the elite and powerful with rumors surrounding them about tendencies towards the occult with strange rituals and ceremonies.

As we continue his backstory, in 1976 his wife Madeleine is diagnosed with terminal cancer and comes on the show for one last interview, the episode hits the peak viewers for the Night Owls show, falling just shy of the Johnny Carson numbers. But after she tragically passes, Jack goes into a tailspin in his personal life. Jack and company make efforts to make the show more entertaining, but the ratings begin to free fall, sponsors are nervous and Jack’s contract is about to expire. In one last ditch effort to save his show, Jack lines up some controversial figures to come on his show for his Halloween special in an effort to get back in the ratings race and turn things around. The announcer explains that what we’re about to see is the master tape of the long lost footage of this final episode that was lost to time. We see the shows sponsor and then meet the show’s guests. Christou (Fayssal Bazzi) is a psychic who can supposedly speak to the dead, also Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon), a writer who wrote a new book called Conversations With The Devil. Finally we get Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), an illusionist who’s also a skeptic and is only there to explain how the other guests aren’t legitimately connected to anything paranormal. And so the show begins with Jack’s opening monologue consisting of a few minutes of stand up jokes and banter between himself and the shows band leader Gus (Rhys Auteri). But as the guests come and go, the strange events go from weird to more and more bizarre and unexplainable. The tension amps up and the film steamrolls through to the finale when Dr. June brings out a little girl named Lilly (Ingrid Torelli) who’s supposedly periodically possessed by demons. While the actual horror of the film is on the lighter side and there’s very little blood, the thrilling aspects of the story and originality help the film maintain an excellent pace right through to the wildly entertaining and twisted ending of the broadcast.

This film is relatively simple from many of its filmmaking aspects. But the production design, the recreation of the 1970’s television studio was immaculate, even the commercial graphics and style is well constructed and thought out. As well as the screenplay by Colin Cairnes, the slow escalation of events and tension through the story as it progressed, leading up to the climactic finale, I found to be an impressive piece of writing. There wasn’t a terrible amount of real cinematic flair to the film, as it’s set entirely in a single set of a studio, the camera work and cinematography was limited due to the confines, mostly of the story, but also the meager budget for the film. And while the “period piece” costumes did impress with all the characters we see come and go within the film, the fact that most of film takes place within a supposedly two hour recording session means there was only a limited amount of costume work to be showcased. But for what it was, the vintage suits and dresses displayed some well done craft. I mentioned him before but Dastmalchian really leads the way here, having put in numerous smaller role performances over the years, he finally makes the most of his opportunity here to helm this ship. His role in Late Night, which he really sinks his teeth into, suits him so well, mainly because this genre fits his look and acting style like a hand in a glove. I’ve heard complaints about the effects being cheap or cheesy, there’s not many actual CG effects but those that are used aren’t super detailed nor impressive. That being said they didn’t bother me at all, I understand this is not a blockbuster film with a massive budget and I accepted it was just not going to look as crisp as a film with a fifty million dollar budget. For horror fans, if you take this film on its own terms you’re bound to have a good to great time, there’s a lot to love here. Late Night With The Devil might not a revolutionary movie, but it’s a great watch to fill a Friday night curled up on the couch with some popcorn.

SUMMARY - Critics and general audiences alike can find a unique and entertaining time awaits them next time they login to Shudder now that this film is available to stream. As much as hanging out With The Devil might not seem like your cup of tea, this film will make the next Late Night horror movie experience you have change your mind.