Late Night with the Devil Review

One of the more interesting yet divisive subgenres of horror is found footage. The earliest example of a found footage film has to be the infamous and controversial Cannibal Holocaust, which innovated the style that would be used in them. But the movie that made it wildly popular was 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, which quickly became a cultural phenomenon thanks to its innovative use of viral marketing. But the found footage subgenre as a whole is a mixed bag. For every good found footage film like Cloverfield, Lake Mungo, Rec, and The Dirties, you’d get utter dreck like Devil’s Due, The Pyramid, The Gallows, and Megan Is Missing. However, here we have another interesting example of a found-footage movie. The debut of first-time directors Colin and Cameron Cairnes, Late Night with the Devil is a unique, spooky, and scary experience that’s a cross between Ghostwatch and Network, and currently one of my favorite horror films of the year.

The film follows the unexplained events that happened in the episode of the 1970s late-night talk show Night Owls with Jack Delroy, which has been a rival to the more popular The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Shown through the master tapes of the episode as well as behind-the-scenes footage, it follows the charismatic host Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) who hosts a special Halloween-themed episode as a ratings stunt. His guests for this particularly spooky episode are psychic and clairvoyant Christou (Fassyl Bazzi), stage magician turned scientific skeptic Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), parapsychologist Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and her patient Lily D’Abo (Ingrid Torelli), the sole survivor of Satanic church’s mass suicide. However, as the night goes on, things slowly yet surely go wrong, making for one unforgettable night of television.  

A brilliant lead performance from the underrated character actor David Dastmalchian.

One of the first elements that drew my attention to this film was its unique premise and the fact that its lead was David Dastmalchian. Dastmalchian is one of my favorite character actors working today since he first caught my attention with his brief yet important performance as Bob Taylor in Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners. He’s appeared in both the works of Villeneuve and Christopher Nolan and has also popped up in various DC Comics adaptations. His distinct look has often led him to be cast in roles as disturbed or off-putting characters like he should be playing Reinfeld in a Dracula adaptation.  But his performance as Jack Delroy allows him to go against type and show off his talent, like so many character actors who get to be in a lead role. He walks the fine line of being charismatically likable and smarmy. This is best shown in his opening monologues, where he thanks everyone who got him there, including his parents who are “at home in Berwynn, Illinois, big smiles on their faces, watching The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”. This also extends into a topical political joke he tells (which he derides as easy pickings) where Jimmy Carter offers his brother Billy the option of being the head of either the FBI or the CIA, with the punchline being Billy saying that he wouldn’t be the head of any agency he couldn’t spell. Dastmalchian’s performance is one of the central attractions of the film and one of the best he’s given in his career. My highest compliment is that I would take Jack Delroy over several of the late-night talk show hosts we currently have.

Just as good as Dastmalchian are the supporting players that surround him. There’s Rhys Auteri as Gus, Jack’s sidekick, and bandleader who serves as the voice of reason, asking Jack to call off the show as things slowly go off the rails as the night continues. Then there’s also Fassyl Bazzi as Christou, who makes for a very entertaining psychic with his faux Spanish accent. However, the last two guests on the show are the standouts of the supporting actors. The first is Ingrid Torelli as Lily, who has something off about her due to her past experiences and turns in a varied and intense performance. The second standout is Ian Bliss as Carmichael Haig, a stage magician turned skeptic and debunker based on the real-life James Randi. Bliss plays the part as quite the presence befitting a former stage magician, being a smug and condescending jerk, carrying around a half-a-million-dollar check for anyone who can prove the presence of the supernatural. However, this makes for an incredibly entertaining character, especially with how he clashes with both Jack and the other guests on the show.

A fantastic recreation of a 70s talk show unfortunately marred by AI art.

The one film that Late Night with the Devil has been compared to is the 1992 British mockumentary Ghostwatch, which staged a live recording of a haunting in Foxhill Drive, London, complete with appearances by real British TV personality Michael Parkinson and psychologist Dr. Lin Pascoe. In comparing the two, Ghostwatch is the better film for convincing the viewer of its authenticity, as Late Night never escapes the feeling of artificiality surrounding it. However, where Late Night with the Devil succeeds is in its recreation of a 1970s late-night talk show. There’s the set of Night Owls and the wardrobe of all of the characters, and how the found footage itself is presented in the look of a VHS recording of a 70s broadcast. Aside from the found footage, the opening of the film is presented in a documentary-style format, which lays the backdrop of the social turmoils of the 1970s as well as the history of Night Owls leading up to its Halloween special. The documentary portion of the film is presented with narration by the great Michael Ironside, which gives the movie another bonus in its favor.

However, one can’t discuss the film and its production values without acknowledging the elephant in the room: the film’s use of generative AI art. Shortly before the film’s release three of the film’s interstitials were made using generative AI, with both Cairnes saying that the interstitials were initially made with AI. This has caused people to boycott the film and the discussion around the use of AI has eclipsed everything else surrounding it. I am of two minds on this issue. I am 100% against the use of generative AI, as it takes away jobs from artists and more importantly, steals from premade art to regurgitate something new. It’s equally disappointing that the directors used AI art, as it’s a slippery slope and they should have known better when using it. What makes it more disappointing is seeing all of the creativity in every other aspect outside of the AI interstitials. This includes a MAD Magazine-style cover that shows Jack as a boxer with Gus as his coach, with Jack saying that he needs to “roll with the punches” while Gus says he has to “roll with the punchlines”. So, the use of AI is disappointing.

On the other hand, I feel like this film does not deserve to be the whipping boy when it comes to the battle against generative AI art, and the vitriolic backlash to the film feels incredibly overblown. The film is an independent production with a mere $2.8 million budget, which can be felt with this movie having nearly two and a half minutes worth of production titles. The outrage at this film and its AI art should be redirected at big corporations that use AI art, which use it not because they are limited on resources but because they want don’t want to shell out the money to pay for an actual artist. Disney has used AI art to create the opening credit titles for their show Secret Invasion and promo art for the second season of Loki, and they barely received any pushback or backlash when compared to Late Night. And Netflix has used AI art in a more egregious and morally repugnant manner with the true crime documentary What Jennifer Did to manipulate photos to support a narrative that the documentary is pushing. I’d be more than willing for the Cairnes to do a re-edit of the movie that replaces the interstitials with art commissioned from some horror artists, as I have encountered some fantastic artists in the horror convention scene.

The only other flaw that I can see with the film is that the switching between the found footage and the behind-the-scenes footage can take one out of the film as they are in distinct styles, with the behind-the-scenes footage being presented in black and white. The film also breaks its found footage format at the end of the film, which will also divide viewers. But I was fully engaged, hooked, and invested in the film’s off-the-rails final minutes.

AI art controversy aside, Late Night with the Devil is a fun, spooky, and scary good time that’ll go down as one of my favorite horror films of the year. David Dastmalchian gives an incredible, must-see performance as the charismatic Jack Delroy in a rare leading role for an accomplished character actor. The film boasts some great supporting performances from Ian Bliss and Ingrid Torelli, and it also possesses some great production design recreating a 1970s late-night talk show. While its final minutes will divide some, it’s still a good and scary time perfect for the Halloween season. I plan to have it in regular rotation when it comes to films I watch in October.

Late Night with the Devil is currently available to watch on Shudder.