There’s always been an intimate kind of magic to late night television, from the contained nature of the set to the bright lights and applause cascading over featured guests to the host seemingly reaching out of the television set into your very own living room as if they were another fixture in your home. And while there is still that level of polished appearances and rehearsed lines, the possibility that something could happen in real-time to send the train off the tracks always simmered underneath. The first memory I have of any experience with late night television was watching the infamous clip of Crispin Glover’s uncomfortably awkward interview with David Letterman that slowly spiraled out of control, capping off with Glover nearly kicking the renowned host in the face. It was authentically chaotic. It was shocking. It was raw. The curtain had been pulled back, even if only for a moment, and audiences saw just a small glimpse of what could happen. Late Night with the Devil places itself right in the middle of these moments and produces something deliciously original and exceptionally sinister.
With Late Night with the Devil, the writer/director combo, brothers Cameron and Colin Cairnes, transport audiences back to the late 1970s when talk show hosts sat atop their ratings like benevolent rulers who bridged the gap between viewers at home and the dazzling fame and fortune of Hollywood laced with the moral anxiety of the period that was building towards the “Satanic Panic” of the next decade. The film sets up and follows a rivalry between the king of late night, Johnny Carson, and the fictional Jack Delroy who hosts The Night Owls with Jack Delroy. After years of chasing Carson in the ratings race and suffering the premature death of his wife, Madeleine, Delroy, charismatically played by David Dastmalchian, is staging a last-ditch effort to keep his program going. He decides to feed into the nation’s fears of the occult with a Halloween show featuring a psychic, a former magician hellbent on disproving “charlatans”, a parapsychologist author, as well as Lilly, the subject of the author’s new book. As the show slowly descends into an unimaginable madness, Delroy must reconcile the demons of his past with the demon in his presence.
What’s really incredible about this movie is that its writing is incisively witty and full of moments that jump from pure evil to lighthearted “commercial breaks” and humor. It’s this duality that stretches the entire runtime that helps propel everything forward at just the right pace for a taught slow-burner that lands around the 90-minute mark. However, the writing would be nothing without the stellar performances of the cast, especially from Dalstmachian as Jack Delroy. With this role, Dalstmachian deftly maneuvers between the mourning widower trying to keep his composure and the desperate late-night personality clinging to his fame like a wild animal backed into a corner. He carries himself with a remarkable level of suave and genuine awkwardness in the moments he faces the camera, but once the lights are off, he transforms to a more calloused, cynical version of himself with tunnel-vision for success. Other standouts are Laura Gordon as the parapsychologist author Dr. June Ross-Mitchell and Ingrid Torelli as Lilly D’Abo, Ross-Mitchell’s patient and survivor of a mass suicide. Their chemistry on-screen as doctor and patient was convincing in its empathy and cautious nature, while Torelli’s transformation from young child to the demonic “Mr. Wriggles” hearkens back to Linda Blair’s Reagan, making the final act even more believing. Rhys Auteri also provides several moments of comedic relief as Delroy’s sidekick, Gus.
Another impressive feature of the film is that it all takes place during one singular episode of the show. It’s presented in documentary-style interlaced with found-footage and behind the scenes moments that use muted yellows, browns, and reds to fully immerse viewers in this era. It’s this contained nature that proves most impactful as the sense of danger is heightened between each break for sponsors and the cast and crew of the show pass the point of no return. And when the film does arrive at its violent final act, instead of following in the full footsteps of The Exorcist, it conjures up its own cosmic version of the prom scene from Carrie and unleashes pure, unadulterated pandemonium that is sure to make jaws drop in every theater.
With razor-sharp wit drenched in hellacious fun and darkness, Late Night with the Devil is a refreshingly original film that proves possession films are far from out of style. Anchored by impeccable writing and a knockout performance by a cast led by David Dastmalchian that saturates viewers in the perfect atmosphere of 70s late-night, this film will wriggle its way through your eyes and into your brain, becoming nearly impossible to remove.
8.5/10
By Brady Cloven
epicfilmguys.wordpress.com 