Late Night With the Devil

Opening this weekend, the new Shudder film Late Night With The Devil is currently playing in select theatres. I caught a screening of it last night at my local AMC.

The movie is filmed in both found footage and faux documentary styles, showing a live broadcast and the behind the scenes of the taping of a 1977 program. David Dastmalchian plays Jack Delroy, the host of Night Owls, a late night talk show that’s trying to compete with the Johnny Carson show for ratings. The beginning shows his career trajectory, as he begins hosting the show, marries an actress named Madeline, who soon contracts lung cancer. He brings her on the show, talking about her diagnosis and how they met, and it becomes his highest rated episode. Soon after, however, she passes away, and the ratings of the show continue to plummet. In an effort to boost them, he decides to host a special Halloween episode for sweeps week, where he will have several guests displaying their supernatural abilities, and a skeptic who attempts to debunk them. These include a psychic named Christou, parapsychologist and author Dr. June Ross-Mitchell and the subject of her latest book, a 13 year old named Lilly who was the lone survivor of a fire that killed all the members of a Satanic cult. The skeptic is Carmichael the Conjurer, a former magician who has now devoted his time to exposing anyone claiming to have real psychic abilities or evidence of the supernatural. As the night progresses, things start to get out of hand, as Jack is determined to push the envelope in a desperate effort to boost ratings.

While this movie is getting lots of praise, it should be noted that it’s not really scary. So anyone going into this expecting a serious horror movie will most likely be disappointed. What it does offer is a lot of campy entertainment and fun. The late 70’s style works to its advantage, accurately duplicating the look and feel of a talk show from that period. The cast is great, especially Ian Bliss as Carmichael the skeptic, coming off like an arrogant douchebag. Ingrid Torelli, who plays Lilly, ends up stealing the show, doing a fantastics job of portraying the demonically possessed kid, especially when she keeps looking into the camera with a dead stare. There are some good practical effects and body horror elements, and the climax is wild but not too over the top, and features a nice twist. You should definitely pay close attention to the segments where they discuss Jack’s history and what went on in the cult that Lilly was a part of, as they offer clues to what happens in the end. I definitely found myself laughing several times, thoroughly enjoying the shenanigans. As long as you don’t buy into the hype and go into this expecting some campy fun, you should enjoy it.