“Late Night with the Devil” (2024) is a found footage movie about Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian), the host of “Night Owls with Jack Delroy.” a late-night talk show, who is vying to displace Johnny Carson as number 1. On Monday, October 31, 1977, Halloween night, Sweeps Week starts. Over the objections of Gus McConnell (Rhys Auteri), Night Owls’ version of Merv Griffith, Jack and his producer, Leo Fiske (Josh Quong Tart), decide that this live broadcast should have a holiday theme. A psychic, Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), a skeptical magician, Carmichael the Conjurer, aka Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), and Stanford parapsychologist June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) with her alleged possessed teenage patient, Lily D’Abo (Ingrid Torelli), are the featured guests. With the separation between the living and the dead at its thinnest and a demon headlining, what could go wrong?
If you do not love found footage films, then skip this movie, but if you are unfamiliar with the genre, then “Late Night with the Devil” is a great place to start even if it is not exactly seamless. Found footage films carry the frisson of feeling as if you are not watching a movie or a polished finished product. Instead it feels as if the camera person intended to make one thing, in this case, a television episode, then something unplanned, unexpected and dangerous happens and gets recorded for others to safely see. Found footage instills dread that the phenomenon is real and could happen to anyone under the wrong circumstances. The film must perfectly embody the visual markers of that era, but also have enough visible technical issues to signify that something is disrupting technology. The static and warp of images are a feature, not a flaw.
If “Late Night with the Devil” made any errors, it is the run time, which should be shorter. Talk shows are one hour long with commercial breaks, but even without the orienting introduction which establishes the setting of the film by providing Jack’s personal and professional history, this film takes longer. There is one rule: if something happened in the real world, then it will appear on the footage when it is played back. One could argue that the supernatural occurrences warped time and space since they got recorded and can be seen when played back even if the events are only transpiring in an individual’s head so it is not a damning mistake, but a detail which will bother people who will remember that era or still watch live television broadcasts. Others have quibbled that no one would record what is happening behind the scenes, but if the Night Owls producers thought that they were making history, maybe they would want to make a documentary about the making of the show.
Otherwise “Late Night with the Devil” makes terrific choices which curb the more annoying traits of the found footage genre. By having a professional, enclosed, controlled visual audio setting, it eliminates shaky cam and provides clear footage so the moviegoers can see everything. Also, it is a moralizing story which tut tuts the television show’s creators for dabbling in inappropriate content beyond their expertise in exchange for shallow, ephemeral rewards like fame. The studioaudience shares some blame for endangering themselves and the performers for the sake of entertainment. The studio audience is the obvious proxy for the people who buy tickets to see this movie or decide to watch it at home. We may feel superior because of the screen separating us from the onscreen action, but we also want to vicariously experience the same thrills without consideration of the price that everyone must pay.
In this case, the titular devil, an unknown demon who may be Abraxis, has its own agenda. American fundamentalist Christians love to interpret ancient Biblical text using contemporary definitions for translated words. Ephesians 2:2 makes a reference to “the prince of the power of the air,” an alleged synonym for Satan, and many believed that the air could be a substitute for airwaves. “Late Night with the Devil” translates these concepts into literal visual images with a devilish grimacing figure appearing in the static, the possessed Lily drawing from the electric power in the studio and the mysterious vibration of the theremin, which starts playing when no one is near it.
Another popular evangelizing concept in Christianity is the idea that deals with the devil always have a catch which results in disaster for the human being who enters the bargain, i.e. the loss of their soul or the success turning sour. “Late Night with the Devil” revisits the image of Jack signing a contract with the studio heads and alludes to his mysterious membership with an exclusive, private, secluded men’s only membership club called The Grove, which is apparently based on a real-life group known as the Bohemian Grove that has existed since 1872 and uses an owl as its mascots. Figures cloaked in white owl masks appear frequently during the film.
Thanks to Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” (2023), more people are familiar with owls signifying death, bad luck, wisdom and/or a spiritual awakening, which could lead to communicating with the underworld. Only wisdom is not applicable even though Jack is dubbed the thinking woman’s man, which aligns with his ability to persuade Laura to disregard her professional reservations by coming on his show. Owls are nocturnal animals with eyes facing forward like human beings, which allows them to access more visual information. Jack is a Night Owl, which ultimately has its tradeoff since communicating with the spiritual world has a price, but also ignores that allying with such a symbol invites disaster into his dreams of success. Everyone involved dabbles into ancient practices and powers with nothing but superficial understanding.
The pitch perfect acting and the excellent directing of the Australian Cairnes brothers makes for a chilling entry in the found footage genre, but
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it relies on demons preferring to scare people over enticing them. “Late Night with the Devil” suggests that Jack unintentionally sacrificed his wife, Madeleine Piper (Georgina Haig), for fame, and she died of cancer. Madeleine’s spirit manifests, and Christou channels her, which leads to his death. So there are several options. Madeleine’s spirit appeared to get revenge, and the demon is the coincidence. The demon is using Madeleine’s image to collect on Jack’s agreement, which leads to Jack murdering a child under the mistaken belief that it was his wife. His career will end on a high note, and he will have more viewers than Carson. Or the demon and Madeleine teamed up. I’m going to go for the second option, but I am a little tired of dumb demons with no PR sense. Why would anyone want to enter another deal with you after such a huge flameout? People are stupid, and the demon is a bit starved for attention after living in an obscure cult, so maybe it is credible. Piling on so many supernatural occurrences carry the risk of everything falling apart under the weight of so many mythologies, which explains why the closing montage kind of took me out of the movie. I love the moral of “Don’t watch,” which no one will ever obey. We’re all prurient and love a show regardless of how hazardous it is to our health.