The 1970s were interesting times. The USA was mired down in the aftermath of Vietnam, Watergate, and economic stagnation. While Jimmy Carter tried to soothe our anxieties, conspiracy theories, the paranormal, and the occult gained legitimacy as solace for a weary world. I recall fondly Leonard Nimoy’s sonorous lectures about the Devil, Lost Dutchman, or Bigfoot on In Search Of. Compared to the insane nonsense on social media today, they were positively charming and quaint.
Such is the setup for Late Night with the Devil, a campy, well-constructed Malaise Era tale about a talk show host who is willing to sell his soul for ratings. Late Night with the Devil takes full advantage of 1970s nostalgia to deliver a horror movie that is more style than scare.
Typically, I ignore the horror genre. I do not care for gore and violence for the sake of gore and violence. However, I appreciate the technical craftsmanship of horror. There are a lot of creative, passionate people deeply embedded in the horror industry.
When those artists can integrate gore and violence into a stylish story with fully developed characters, I am all in. Late Night with the Devil does exactly that. The horror aspects of the movie take a back seat to the style. However, the real reason the movie clicks comes down to two primary elements.
The first is David Dastmalchian, who plays the aforementioned talk show host, Jack DelRoy. Dastmalchian is a minor character in a lot of notable movies (Oppenheimer for example). He is one of those go-to character actors when you need somebody a little weird and funny looking. Late Night with the Devil is clearly a passion project for Dastmalchian. He pours himself into the role, sometimes excessively. His performance gives the movie an edgy nervousness it needs to support the style.
The second reason Late Night with the Devil clicks is the spot-on production design. It feels like an authentic 1970s-era movie. It manages to capture that odd intersection of a culture that is both naive about what is happening and weary from scandal and failure. At multiple points during the movie, I was reminded of the prophetic 1976 movie, Network. Late Night with the Devil feels like a show that the network, in the movie Network, would produce.
Kudos for this goes to the directing duo of Australian horror bros Cameron and Colin Cairnes. They also poured themselves into this movie, and it shows. They constructed not only an excellent replica of 1970s mood, but also an entertaining, if not low-stakes story. The Cairnes brothers have a resume that is filled with campy horror movies I will probably never watch. Late Night with the Devil showed they are capable of something more than blood and screams.
To accomplish this feat, the Cairnes brothers used every tool at their disposal. They generously applied homages to other horror movies, most notably The Exorcist. They made the most of their single-location set and “found-footage” framing technique. The guests on the show are inspired from real-life “psychics” such as Criswell and the The Amazing Kreskin. Cairnes also used AI for some of the artwork in the movie. Use of AI angers some people, but I am not one of them. I believe AI, like CGI before it, is merely another tool artists can use to fully realize their creative vision.
If there is a weak spot in Late Night with the Devil, it is the story. Struggling late-night talk show host Dastmalchian needs to jolt his ratings. He concocts a plan to do a live show on Halloween with a cavalcade of mediums, psychics, soothsayers, and teenagers possessed with the Devil. You know, normal stuff. Of course, the live episode goes off the rails when said teenager unleashes hell. There are a number of fake-out moments, a few jump scares, and an antagonistic “skeptic” who helps keep the plot rolling along. The gore is minimal and effective.
While the movie is over reliant on horror tropes, they cement the nostalgic, campy feeling. Late Night with the Devil feels like a movie you would watch on late-night cable TV in the 1980s while drinking Jolt Cola, trying to forget about your 12% mortgage.
The final moments of the movie are goofy and absurd. Nevertheless, I was so enthralled with the mood and tone that I just sat back and enjoyed the craziness.
Late Night with the Devil does not have any grand, deep, message. Nor will it win any big awards. Dastmalchian will need to keep his day job of playing weird guys in blockbuster movies. Nevertheless, it is a satisfying, campy romp into the paranoid 1970s. The movie may struggle to connect with younger audiences who will not appreciate the 1970s mood and expect more shock and gore. That is inevitable, but as a GenXer, I appreciate the craftsmanship and passion that Dastmalchian and the Cairnes brothers put into making Late Night with the Devil.
Now I want to go watch In Search of…
