Late Night With The Devil [2023]

May 31, 2024

If you’re looking for an original and refreshing horror comedy look no further than Late Night With The Devil. Superbly written, acted, and directed this is one of those sleeper hits that come out of nowhere and blow your mind. For a couple of weeks now I’ve been hearing rumbles about the latest Shudder production. A supposedly unique blend of horror and comedy unfolding in real-time and in a single location. Well, if you know me, you know that I simply love movies like this. Hell, I think I’ve already said this a dozen times while recommending some of my favorites. So, what the fuck do we actually have here and what’s Late Night With The Devil about?

After a brief intro telling us all about late night talk show host Jack Delroy and his life up to this moment, we jump into his most famous broadcast. We will be watching a 1977 Halloween episode of his Night Owls television show featuring all kinds of guests. Guests who are interested in the supernatural and the occult. It’s suffice to say that right away things will start going wrong. However, by the end of the evening, those early incidents will seem like funny mishaps. Mostly because this movie ends with a bang. Late Night With The Devil basically feels like any other late night show enhanced by the behind-the-scenes footage.

One of the first things you’re going to notice is the sheer quality of the script. It’s truly amazing how they managed to recreate that trademark seventies vibe complete with jokes, atmosphere, and pretty much everything else. Moreover, if we removed all the horror elements from the movie entirely, it would still be highly entertaining. And definitely worth watching. It is that good. I’m sure you’re going to notice straight away that the aspect ratio for this movie is 4:3 and not the classic 16:9, 1.85:1, or even 2.40:1. However, you’ll soon forget all about it despite its prominence.

Your focus will be elsewhere and rightly so. Late Night With The Devil is coming to us from Cairnes Brothers, Cameron and Colin who wrote and directed this movie. I vaguely recall watching their debut 100 Bloody Acres many years. And you can bet your sweet ass that I’ll watch it again along with their next movie Scare Campaign. After Spierig Brothers (Undead, Daybreakers) we have another awesome Australian directorial team. Well, let me catch my breath here as I’ve written all of this in under five minutes. That’s better, now, let’s carry on.

I want to say something really important and that is that you should check out this movie even if you’re not a horror fan. Not only it’s all the things I’ve listed above but it’s also a refreshing seventies period movie. Just be aware that Late Night With The Devil is not a movie for kids but an R-rated horror with several quite graphic scenes. Shot in just 20 days in Melbourne with a mostly Aussie crew, it’s proof that you can still make great movies. And I’ll cleverly avoid a rant about big studios, Hollywood, theaters, and the general population. What I’m going to do instead is tease all the hidden and not-so-hidden references this movie makes. I’ll get into details at the end of this movie recommendation.

With that said, let’s focus on the cast led by the amazing David Dastmalchian. Usually cast as the quirky outcast, he finally proved just how good of an actor he really is. Young Ingrid Torelli was phenomenal as Lilly in her debut role along with Laura Gordon who plays her doctor June. And I simply have to mention Rhys Auteri who plays the host’s sidekick. His character reminded me so much of both Guillermo Rodriguez (Jimmy Kimmel Live!) and Andy Richter (Late Night With Conan O’Brien). The set design was sublimely authentic, something that comes as no surprise since it was created by a guy who worked a number of shows during the seventies.

So, it wasn’t that hard for him to create something that looks and feels like it’s from that decade. I know what I promised and here are those references in the correct order. I wouldn’t consider them spoilers but just in case you want to discover them for yourself you might want to skip the next section. First up we have the mysterious The Grove which is an obvious reference to the very real Bohemian Grove. Next up we have the Satanist Szandor D’Abo who’s a fictionalized version of Anton Szandor LaVey, the founder of Church of Satan. His standoff with the police is eerily reminiscent of the Waco standoff.

Carmichael Haig is based on James Randi, a former magician who went on to debunk a lot psychics. You might want to check out a documentary about him An Honest Liar, it’s really good. One of the people who he debunked was Uri Geller. Uri was a regular guest on many late night television shows during the seventies. Finally, if you’re looking for movies like Late Night With The Devil you might want to check out The Cleansing Hour, History of the Occult and Ti West’s House of the Devil.