THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Boy does it not look good when our motivations take us downhill.
PLOT
Late Night with the Devil is shown as a documentary, showing events that took place in 10/31/77 and follows variety late night talk show host Jack Delroy desperately competing for ratings with Johnny Carson on his own series NIght Owls. Despite having connections with the elite California camp, The Grove, he’s already been right behind the Tonight Show host. He returns to production after the death of his wife Madeleine (Georgina Haig) rightfully led to him halting the series, now inspired to produce a special occult themed episode. His guests in this particular episode include: Parapsychologist author June Ross-Mitchell and his adopted daughter Lilly who's possessed by a demonic spirit, professional psychic/medium Christou and former magician Carmichael Haig, the latter of which is extremely skeptic towards the other guests' line of work. The broadcast starts out with Christou experiencing a premonition of someone named Minnie, which Jack confirms to be Madeleine's nickname. He also has one with two audience members, helping them reconnect with a relative they lost. Shortly after this, he starts vomiting a black liquid and is rushed to the hospital. June is next introduced where she explains how Lilly a satanic church's mass suicide that worshipped Abraxas. Jack is able to convince her to conjure the demon nicknamed 'Mr Wriggles' for the next segment. During a break though, Jack is informed that Christou died from hemorrhaging during his ambulance trip. During June's conjuring, Lily's possession causes her to levitate in her chair and Mr Wriggles reveals on live television that Jack & June have had an affair and recognized the host long before the show. The show goes on when the possession subsides, giving Carmichael a chance to show off his talent. He subjects Jack's assistant Gus McConnell to demonstrate hypnotism. It's proven to be quite effective when everyone in the studio believe worms are coming out of Gus' body. The production team rewinds the footage to confirm it was a joint hallucination they all experienced. When choosing to rewind June's conjuring, nothing about it is altered except that Jack spotted Minnie's ghost standing behind him. As Carmichael accuses him of orchestrating the events, Mr. Wriggles possesses Lilly again and this time, her head glows as it splits open. She ends up killing Gus, Carmichael & June, but takes Jack to a nightmarish version of the show. Mr Wriggles reminds him that they met at the Grove during a ceremony, where he made a devilish pact sacrificing Minnie’s soul for Night Owls to be successful, making him responsible for her cancer. Minnie’s ghost appears again and begs him to put her out of misery as her cancer is still putting her through pain. He chooses to do so by stabbing her with the same dagger from Lilly’s cult, only to resume to the now empty studio and discover her stabbed Lilly on set. The film ends with him screaming in horror as police sirens approach the studio.
THOUGHTS
Horror is known to be visceral, which doesn’t make it too surprising when both Cameron & Colin Cairnes were able to write/direct/edit a story that redefines the term. Shooting a talk show is not as easy as it looks compared to a movie because anything can make the whole experience out of control in the blink of an eye. The practical & visual effects that are undoubtedly incredible in bringing the supernatural themes to life because I’m still rattled seeing worms pour out of a body, as well as see someone get melted. What I thought was a bigger strength was the production design done the Night Owls set. It’s so impressively made I would mistake to be an actual 70s show. Again I think the supernatural chaos that ensues is a deep allegory on the consequences of greed because you can’t expect not to have any when putting aside other people’s well being just so you can be better than them. It is one thing to want to be successful because we don’t want to be stuck in a position where we’re constantly suffering. But if you’re in a spot where you’re more than comfortable, there’s no need to go beyond that. That is the lesson taught when following Jack Delroy suffer for his greatest mistakes. Thanks to a fantastic lead performance by David Dastmalchian, he’s definitely a guy who has a layer of selfishness he’s aware of because he’s willing to do anything to top the success of Carson. What he had wasn’t enough for him and was thus willing to sacrifice the innocent to elevate his own career. As the night progressed on his final episode, he realized he couldn’t have his cake and eat it too. Dastmalchian portrays him in a way that he didn’t know Minnie would be sacrificed which expresses his regret by the climax, which doesn’t make it better for the character because that still implies he’d look the other way for a stranger being in her position. You already dislike his selfishness for exploiting the supernatural the way he does before the twist, which makes his comeuppance all the more fitting since his name will now live in infamy for a final misunderstanding. Add this with Josh Quong start making a vindictive producer out of Leo Fiske, who condones what he does because the ratings do good once hell starts breaking loose, you just know no one’s gonna get a happy ending. Instead of Jack, the true victims are those that are unprepared for what would follow. The first of which has to be Gus because as Rhys Auteri shows him to be one who’s openly worried like everyone else and believes the plug should’ve been pulled sooner. He honestly has the worst death since he tried defending himself with religion which was all he had left to try at that point before a nasty head twist. That was just as bad as his worm hallucination. The only one who seemed most uncomfortable was Christou because like June, Fayssal Bazzi shows him to be most proud of what he does and is showing it to be informative. Had he given second thoughts going on the same night as a possessed girl, he likely would’ve not came. Once his death was ignored by Jack, we just knew it was gonna get much worse before there could be a possibility of it getting better. I’ve seen a lot of haters in my life, but I’ve never seen one so much of a prick compared to Carmichael Haig. Portrayed by Ian Bliss, the guy echoes real life James Randi who doubts what is and isn’t real to the point where he comes off like he’s doing it to get a rise out of people. Then again, he felt valid since he’s a pro at making hallucinations the way he does. His death was quite ironic since he was trying to buy his way out with the same check he was going to give for anyone that’d prove him wrong. Enter Ingrid Torelli who shows Lilly to be the biggest victim of all here, surviving the cult she was bred for the sake of unleashing a demon that’s now stuck with her. The way Torelli goes from the innocent teen to the diabolical demon Mr Wriggles, it’s an unforgettable acting lesson to behold in the same vein of Linda Blair from The Exorcist. The girl is trying to fit in, but doesn’t realize she’s still being taken advantage of. Laura Gordon is also impressive in presenting June as the most compassionate towards her despite a dynamic relationship, but her mistake is allowing her exploitation to go on, knowing Jack would not take her situation seriously. Had she not fallen for him in secret, a lot of lives would’ve been saved. Ironically, it is the girl that exposes Jack for who he is while also getting put out of misery. Had she not been invited to the show, Jack’s undeserving success would’ve lived on. I’m sure he won’t go to jail for killing Lilly on accident, but he definitely ain’t gonna go unscathed for everything leading up to it, which is why the infamy of his name will now live on for something he could’ve avoided. I mean you just know he’s gonna be in trouble when aligning with the Grove, a fictional version of the controversial Bohemian Grove. In short, Late Night with the Devil is a fantastic horror film for showing exactly how south things can get when not thinking through irrational decisions. If you want a story that’ll shock you, this’ll do it for you.
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