Review: LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL

I’m at home alone on a Saturday night, pizza was ordered, and I was looking for a good movie. Late Night with the Devil was on streaming, so I’m one happy bunny.

Half a pizza gone and Late Night with the Devil now watched, I’m now an annoyed bunny. In a nutshell, the movie was fantastic, until the third act.

The movie stars David Dastmalchian, Larua Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli, Rhys Auteri, and Josh Quong Tart. Cameron Cairnes and Colin Cairnes serve as writers and directors. I rate Dastmalchian as an actor. He’s underrated and was looking forward to seeing him in a lead role.

The Story

The official blurb is:

A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.

The movie starts as a TV documentary about Jack Delroy (Dastmalchian). Jack had a TV show in the 1970s and was competing for ratings against the likes of Jonny Carson. To boost the ratings, he invites psychic researcher, June Ross-Mitchell (Gordon) and her protege, Lilly (Torelli) onto his show.

Also on the live show is a psychic, Christou (Bazzi), and a psychic de-bunker, Carmichael Haig (Bliss). The show starts and Christou shows off his “powers” and seems like a fraud until he really starts to act up.

Carmichael comes out, shows that Christou is a fraud, and offers money to anyone who can prove that the supernatural exists.

There’s a subplot about how Jack is part of a secret organization that deals with the occult. You know, like the Stonecutters from The Simpsons. As Jack becomes famous, his wife passes away, but he’s determined to be the best talk show host ever. I won’t break down the rest of the story.

What Works

As Late Night with the Devil goes on, it’s all shot from the “original recordings” of the live show and this was excellent. The slightly off-camera focus, the reaction of the cameramen, and the sounds all made it really believable. I was honestly impressed.

Without going into major spoilers, there is a good moment where Carmichael shows us, and the audience, how a fake possession can be done and it is very clever.

The cast is really good, and Dastmalchian is excellent. The build-up to the end is very engaging and I was very interested in where it was going and how it was going to finish, but this is where the problem lies.

What Didn’t Work – Spoilers

This is a **Spoiler Warning** – Do NOT read any further if you are keeping yourself pure for the movie.

The first two acts are very clever, but it’s in the third act that it just has an “Amber Herd” in the bed. The entire movie is shot in 4:3, like an original TV broadcast from the 1970s. During the commercials, there is black and white 16mm footage of the behind-the-scenes of the show, which did take me out of things for a moment, but does actually kind of work.

When it all kicks off at the end, firstly it goes way too over the top with the effects and I started to laugh at how it looked. The editing starts to fall down here and takes you right out of the movie.

If this had been a live show, on live TV, with a live crew and production team, the director (of the show) wouldn’t have started flicking around from camera to camera.

Then the movie cuts to a scene shot in 2:35 (Cinescope) and I was now confused about what was happening. Was this now? Was it a shot from Jack’s perspective? If all the other footage was from the original recordings and behind-the-scenes footage, what the hell was this?

We then start on a psychedelic trip, probably from Jack’s perspective, about how he got famous and things about his dead wife. The problem was, at this point, I had completely checked out of what was going on. Firstly from the over-the-top FX and then the confusing camera work.

Overall

Late Night with the Devil is a great movie for about an hour and ten minutes. The last 20 minutes are confusing and, honestly, just stupid. I’m actually annoyed at the whole thing now. There is nothing worse than getting invested in the movie and the characters, only to be let down.

The third act could have stayed very chilling and creepy and, with a more subtle ending, could have stayed with me a long time. For example, watch Inside No. 9 (BBC) Season 3 Episode 1 – The Devil at Christmas, that was this movie, but done right.

Modern horror is a quagmire of crap. Now and then, you find a pearl, but most of the time, you have to wade through crap. This was like a pearl, but as you hold it and examine it, slowly starts to turn into crap in your hand.

Late Night with the Devil is on streaming. You might like it but be prepared for that crappy ending.