Film Review — Late Night with the Devil

David Dastmalchian is terrific as a 1970s late-night TV talk show host in Colin and Cameron Cairnes’s spine-chilling found footage horror gem

My first thought going into Colin and Cameron Cairnes’s found footage horror flick was these directors had obviously seen the BBC’s notorious 1992 prank “live” broadcast Ghostwatch. Yet this is inspired by American TV late-night specials a couple of decades earlier, in the aftermath of films like The Exorcist (1973). As such, Late Night with the Devil nails the look and feel of television talk shows of the time, held together by an excellent central performance from David Dastmalchian. It also winds up being genuinely scary.

It’s great to see Dastmalchian in a rare lead role, and here he completely owns the part of Jack Delroy, host of talk show Night Owls. A prologue montage (voiceover courtesy of Michael Ironside) summarises Delroy’s career to date, placing it amid archive footage of the politically turbulent 1970s. Delroy’s connections to the elite (and rather sinister) Bohemian Grove club gave him a leg up in the TV world, but he found himself in a ratings competition with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, always coming second. Later, the tragic death of his beloved wife, Madeleine (Georgina Haig), almost spelt the end for Night Owls, but Delroy tried to stage a comeback, resorting to increasingly desperate measures to grab viewers.

We are then informed what we are about to see is the original unedited broadcast master of a Night Owls Halloween special broadcast live on 31st October 1977, with previously unseen monochrome behind-the-scenes footage shot during the commercial breaks. This then plays out akin to a found footage film, but with enough distinction to make it stand out as a particularly gripping entry in what had previously become quite a tired genre. Colin and Cameron Cairnes’s attention to period detail is a major factor in what sells the piece, as is Dastmalchian, working with a clutch of strong supporting performers. But I was also struck by the strength of the screenplay, which cleverly questions every apparently supernatural incident throughout, building suspension of disbelief for a particularly full-on finale.

The first guest, an obviously phoney psychic called Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), is easily debunked by former stage magician Carmichael the Conjurer (Ian Bliss). Yet when Christou has what Delroy thinks could be a genuine message from the great beyond, things become a little more ambiguous (with a couple of shocking turns I won’t spoil). Carmichael remains sceptical and continues his relentless attempts to debunk Delroy’s next guests; a thirteen-year-old girl called Lily (Ingrid Torelli), who was rescued from a satanic cult, and parapsychologist June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon).

Lily claims to be possessed by a demon called “Mr Wriggles” (definite shades of “Captain Howdy” from The Exorcist), and things start to get rather unnerving. During commercial breaks, freaked-out members of the crew walk out, and house band leader Gus McConnell (Rhys Auteri) urges Delroy to stop the programme, insisting he’s meddling with things he shouldn’t. But Delroy, egged on by his producer Leo Fiske (Josh Quong Tart), wants the ratings. I won’t say any more for fear of spoilers, except that this is a treat for horror fans.

The only nit I’d pick is that the film briefly uses three AI-generated stills leading into commercial breaks (full frame captions saying “We’ll be right back”, one of which features a skeleton and pumpkin). Given the passionate creativity that went into crafting the 1970s aesthetic, it’s incredibly disappointing to learn of this misjudgement on the part of the filmmakers. Why not just have these created by a human being?

That ethical misstep aside, Late Night with the Devil is a very strong piece of work, emerging as genuinely disturbing and frightening. I had a great time. It is also proof that we need more films with David Dastmalchian in the lead.

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