Late Night With The Devil Review
Late Night With The Devil: IFC FIlms
What would you do to ensure your success? It’s a loaded question and one of great significance to the plot of today’s film: Late Night With The Devil. Jack (David Dastmalchian) is a down-on-his-luck talk show host whose ratings began to plummet after he took a month-long absence following his wife’s death from cancer. We’re given a brief history of his rise and fall through a documentary-style framing device before the film transitions to a found footage story. We’re told that we are about to watch the master tapes from Jack's last show, which aired on Halloween 1977, where, in a moment of desperation, he arranged to commune with the devil live on his television show.
From the start, you might notice some intriguing aesthetic choices. TV shows in the 70s were not filmed in widescreen, so, in an effort to capture authenticity, the film is predominantly shot in fullscreen, mimicking the style of 70s TV shows. Backstage footage, purportedly filmed on set, is shown between commercial breaks but is presented in widescreen and black and white, suggesting the use of film cameras rather than TV cameras.
The film gradually ramps up the tension as we watch the episode unfold. Jack has invited a psychic: Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), a skeptic: Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), and a psychologist: June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) specializing in the paranormal, along with her possessed patient and ward: Lilly (Ingrid Torelli). We start with the psychic, who seems blatantly fake, but hints of something darker begin to surface as he deteriorates live on television after performing psychic readings. From this point on, it becomes undeniable that something deeply sinister surrounds the production of the episode.
Late Night With The Devil is a fantastic exploration of a very specific period in American history. Its production value greatly enhances the believability that this was an actual episode of television recovered from the 70s. It feels like looking through a window back in time, though certain elements occasionally break that immersion, such as the overly clear audio quality and modern video editing styles that weren’t used in late-night television at that time. Most viewers likely won’t notice these details, and I understand that the updates help bridge the temporal gap and make the film accessible to a contemporary audience.
Despite these minor issues, I highly recommend this film, especially as the spooky season approaches. It was incredibly captivating, and I found myself genuinely concerned for some of the characters, which is rare for a horror film. The novelty of this film is incredible, there's nothing like it that's ever been produced before to my knowledge, I genuinely believe this film will become a new horror classic.
