Late Night with the Devil

How far are you willing to go in realizing your ambitions? Would you be willing to make big sacrifices? Associate with shady beings? Sell your soul? Those are among the possibilities raised in the latest hair-raising smart horror/comedy from the writing-directing duo of Cameron and Colin Cairnes. This documentary-style offering presents the supposedly lost recording (complete with allegedly never-before-seen found footage) of a 1970s late night talk show hosted by comedian/TV personality Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) whose goal is to unseat Johnny Carson’s eminently popular Tonight Show as the premier after-hours choice of viewing. Delroy’s Night Owls broadcast is modestly successful, but it never manages to win the late night ratings race, so he desperately looks for ways to nudge his program over the top. When he decides to host a Halloween show with an array of occult/paranormal guests – capitalizing on a growing trend at the time – he believes he’s hit on the formula to achieve his goal. But, as the show progresses, he finds himself in over his head as events begin to spiral out of control. Viewers both on and off the screen are kept in suspense with a well-integrated blend of humor, high camp and unexpectedly spooky moments involving a hammy, self-righteous psychic medium (Fayssal Bazzi), an egomanical magician-turned-debunker (Ian Bliss), and an escaped teenage cult member (Ingrid Torelli) and her psychologist caregiver/surrogate parent (Laura Gordon). As things deteriorate, Jack tries to hold the show together with the aid of his producer (Josh Quong Tart) and flunky sidekick (Rhys Auteri). But, as the stakes are continually upped, that task grows ever more difficult, especially when supernatural influences begin to assert themselves in the studio, threatening both the broadcast and the fulfillment of the host’s long-cherished dream. Although occasional pacing issues, a periodically disjointed narrative and a somewhat overblown final act can get in the way of the smoothness of the story flow, these shortcomings are made up for by the film’s superb period piece production design, its clever writing and its fine performances, most notably that of the protagonist. And, in the end, it’s all served up with lots of laughs and a tidy moral of the story. Admittedly, “Late Night with the Devil” probably would have worked better as a Halloween release than a piece of springtime movie fare, but that doesn’t lessen the entertainment value of this inspired production, one thar shows horror flicks can indeed do more than just see how high it can make the final body count.

With his days of chasing Johnny Carson in the television ratings long gone, the now struggling and recently bereaved talk show host "Jack Delroy" (David Dastmalchian) is staring cancellation in the face. Then he and producer "Leo" (Josh Quong Tart) come up with an idea for a riveting Halloween special. The gist of what comes now purports to be an off-air recording of that lost transmission from 1977 - and it's quite literally hair raising. His first guest is a medium, his second an out-and-out sceptic and his third - well they have quite an unique claim to fame - and it's this last quarter of the film that comes "alive". Sadly, the rest of this feature is rather hampered by the constant (virtual) advertising breaks that completely suck the pace out of the thing. They are designed to, in monochrome, fill in a little of the back-stage machinations as the programme goes to air but for me, they just interrupted - far too frequently - the culmination of the truth or fake storyline. Dastmalchian does an half decent job here, but the plaudits really belong to Ian Bliss and his sarcastic "Carmichael Haig" character. He's the poacher-cum-gamekeeper cynic who has a ridiculing put down for just about everything that emanates from the other characters. Projectile vomiting or chair levitation - he has an plausible explanation. That's maybe part of the film's problem in general. Though set in the 1970s when these kind of visual effects were less prevalent, the whole thing just comes across as a perfectly plausible ratings-gathering gimmick. Whilst that's not necessarily a bad thing, it does rather rob the film of any pretence of horror or mystery. In fact, by the conclusion it seemed more designed to send up the whole principle of half-baked, late-night American television hosted by vain, ambitious but largely talentless men in suits. It's short and sweet, and doesn't hang around - but I just didn't find it particularly shocking or innovative. Wait til it's on the television, I'd say.