Late Night with the Devil Movie Review – The Exorcist for a New Generation

It’s not every day that master of horror Stephen King calls a movie “absolutely brilliant,” but he reserved special praise for writers-directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes’s Late Night with the Devil. So, was King dealing in excessive hyperbole or does the film merit the hype? Let’s not beat around the bush here: Late Night with the Devil isn’t “absolutely brilliant.” It’s one of the best horror movies of the 2000s that could have come from the terrifying mind of King himself.

Late Night with the Devil is a found-footage film, but not that shaky cam nonsense where people stare at twigs and bird droppings for 90 minutes (looking at you, Blair Witch and all those terrible spawns you produced). Instead, the story is told through the master tape and behind-the-scenes footage of the fictional late-night show Night Owls with Jack Delroy. Set in the 1970s, Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) is the charismatic host of the aforementioned show, as he competes with Johnny Carson for viewers. With ratings down and Jack having experienced personal tragedy, he swings for the fences with the Halloween 1977 special and explores the occult. For one segment, he chats to parapsychologist Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) as well as the young teenager Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), who is one of the doctor’s patients and a survivor of a Satanic church’s mass suicide. Needless to say, this doesn’t turn into an episode of Oprah.

Experiencing the horrors of the late, late show

Late-night shows have become ingrained in American culture to the point that many families incorporate them into their nightly rituals. They provide safe and lighthearted entertainment, proving to be the best kind of non-threatening content to consume before bedtime. The Cairnes use this fact to disarm the viewer, creating a comforting setting and friendly characters that indicate nothing can go wrong here. So, when it does turn into hellfire and brimstone, the audience suffers – almost as if someone broke into their home and inflicted the wrath of the Devil in their own living room.

The Cairnes also explore the entire late-night show circuit of the era and the manufactured aspect of it all, exposing the grim reality of human nature. The hosts may give off an aura of warmth and familiarity, but this is a cutthroat game about ratings and ego. These shows are desperate for relevancy and they’re willing to do anything to stay on the air and dominate. In this instance, they opened Pandora’s box.

As the veneer cracks, it’s unsettling to see the hosts and television personnel try to maintain their smiles and good nature in Late Night with the Devil. Their eyes betray them, though. Crucially to the film, Matthew Temple’s cinematography doesn’t flinch for a moment here, because remember, this is a television show and it’s all about the ratings, so even the worst of the worst needs to be captured until the next commercial break. It’s only in the behind-the-scenes segments where the characters drop their masks entirely and freak out about what’s happening to them.

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David Dastmalchian’s Jack Delroy pays the price for fame

At its heart, Late Night with the Devil is a cautionary tale about the price of fame, especially for Jack. David Dastmalchian captures this aspect, as well as the other different facets, of his character. From the fame-hungry celebrity to a man who realizes he’s made a major mistake, Dastmalchian gets it. Like many other television hosts, Jack is ready to do what it takes to be successful; however, it eventually comes at a cost. Anyone who has watched Dastmalchian’s supporting roles in films such as The Dark Knight and Prisoners knows his talent and ability to portray complex characters. Yet, the role of Jack more than proves he should be leading a lot more movies than he currently is, because he possesses a rare, inexplicable quality that makes him stand out on screen.

While the supporting characters in Late Night with the Devil nail what’s required of them, it would be remiss to not single out Ingrid Torelli as Lilly. Simply put: Torelli is a star. Taking eerie shades of Linda Blair’s Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist and blending it with the sinister savageness of Jennifer Carpenter’s Emily Rose from The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Torelli’s Lilly will have audiences reaching for the crucifix and hoping Austin 3:16 is an actual bible verse they can recite. The actor is that good. Don’t be surprised to see Torelli become one of the next big faces in the horror genre.

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Should you watch Late Night with the Devil?

Horror movies love gimmicks to grab the audience’s attention. While Late Night with the Devil also does this by using a late-night talk show as the main setting, it unleashes terror and fear in ways that no one could imagine walking into this film. It refuses to let up or be gentle in the slightest. Once the credits roll, the unnerving chill doesn’t go away either as the events stay with the viewer for some time afterward. Make no mistake about it: This is The Exorcist for a new generation.