In the 1970’s Jack Delroy (the amazing David Dastmalchian, 2021’s Dune and The Suicide Squad) makes a bid to dethrone Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show which doesn’t quite succeed. Following the death of his wife, Jack takes a sabbatical before returning with a tweak to his format where controversy and shock value is introduced among the schtick and corniness.
Flash forward to Halloween night, 1977 and Jack has a pretty stellar line-up sure to appeal big-fucking-time to the Occult obsessed ’70s including celebrity clairvoyant/fraud Christou (Fayssal Bazzi) and paranormal debunker Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), but the real showstopper is parapsychologist Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and her young charge Lilly (Ingrid Torelli… more on her in a bit), a girl rescued from the fiery stand-off between law enforcement and a Satanic cult.
About Lilly, she’s two things; incredibly strange and purported to be demonically possessed… and Jack is all about proving that particular topic to be a fact to improve his ratings… despite his crew’s protestations… which are understandable in hindsight as Jack’s plan, is in fact, shit… and things go south, like Hell-level south, right quick!
There’s a lot to love about Late Night with the Devil cats n’ creeps, and this would be a shit review (keep your comments to yourself) if I didn’t tell you lascivious lot all about them!
For starters it’s commitment to being authentic is admirable and the use of various filmmaking styles is pretty damn stellar as well as it showcases a faux-documentary that introduces us to the world of the film (narrated by the legendary Michael Ironside, Scanners), the “actual” television broadcast, a cinéma vérité-style behind the scenes look at the show’s production, an In Search of style piece, a batshit crazy hallucinogenic nightmare… it’s a great deal of fun and definitely sells the believability of the piece.
You really don’t need to read this next part as it’s a personal aside more than part of the review, but this flick really resonated with yours cruelly as in my filmmaking side-journey I have made more than one found footage style piece that showcases broadcasts from decades past (albeit on a vastly smaller budget) so the care writer/directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes took to bring this vision to the screen is appreciated and enjoyed!
Speaking of appreciated, the use of some jaw-droppingly rad as fuck practical effects in lieu of gobs of weightless digital horseshit was impressive… and most satisfying, has moments that will make gore-hounds smile 666 miles wide!
Of course none of the above would work quite as well without a top-notch cast and the one assembled here truly shines with a knock-out performance from Dastmalchian who gives us a tragic, yet charming hero with plenty of emotional gravitas and gobs of late night TV talk show phony-baloney bullshit… it’s a very convincing performance, but it’s not my favorite of the picture…
No, sorry DJ Davey D (I’m sure you are both cool with me calling you that and not reading this),that honor goes to Torelli who provides a truly unsettling performance that is one part innocent, one part skin crawling, and all parts awesome!
So that’s the picture in a nutshell… as for special features present here, things kick off with an audio commentary courtesy of Dastmalchian and Good Fiend Films Producer that takes us through the film’s production via plenty of first hand anecdotes (rather than being a nuts n’ bolts affair) that remains a fun listen even though it suffers from dead spots here and there as the subjects watch the movie rather than givin’ with the ol’ chit chat, but beggars can’t be choosers I suppose).
Also included are a a brief glimpse behind-the-scenes of the flick’s production, a Q&A sesh with the Cairnes, and a mock-regional horror host program promoting Jack’s Halloween show (again, I can relate as in my mind these reviews are more like host segments for broadcasts that never were… cue Theremin… oh, did I mention the clever use of soundtrack in the film with a live band and the aforementioned Theremin present?)… Anyway, I dug this a relative shit-ton!
There are a variety of formats that you can pick this fright flick up in, but there is a nifty Steelbook edition (the one I utilized for this very revoltin’ review) that contains an “Audience Welcome” pack full of replica ephemera from Delroy’s in-movie show, Night Owls.
One of the best demonic possession flicks out there, Late Night with the Devil is fun, easy to lose yourself in, and absolutely top-tier psychotronic entertainment! I give it my highest recommendation!!
