Watch horror Movies for free with Amazon Prime

Late Night with the Devil

Late Night with the Devil
2023
9
Director: 
Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes

SYNOPSIS: 

Set in the 1970s, Late Night with the Devil captures a fictional live broadcast where popular talk show host Jack Delroy, played by David Dastmalchian, attempts to boost his show’s ratings with an outrageous Halloween special. As the episode unfolds, Delroy invites an unusual mix of guests, including a young girl with a haunting past and supernatural researchers, leading to a night of spine-chilling, unexpected events. As supernatural occurrences escalate, the broadcast spirals into horror, leaving both the show’s characters and audience questioning reality.

REVIEW: 

Late Night with the Devil by directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes uses a retro TV show setting to create an unnerving atmosphere that draws viewers into a slowly intensifying horror. The film’s attention to detail, from the 70s grainy footage style to shifting between black-and-white and color, sets the tone perfectly. The clever cinematography immerses audiences as if they’re watching a live broadcast unraveling in real time, a technique that intensifies the suspense, especially during the eerie "commercial breaks." David Dastmalchian’s portrayal of Jack Delroy is a highlight, conveying both desperation and a subtle descent into darkness. His character’s manipulation of a vulnerable young guest and a proposed live exorcism for ratings builds a multi-layered commentary on society's fascination with live tragedies.

The tension in *Late Night with the Devil* is amplified by practical effects and unsettling performances, particularly from young Ingrid Torelli. Her disturbing behavior throughout the live exorcism segments channels classic possession horror, drawing comparisons to *The Exorcist* but with a modern twist that keeps the storyline refreshing. The supporting cast, including Laura Gordon and Ian Bliss, helps maintain the suspense through believable reactions to increasingly terrifying phenomena.

Despite its chilling final act, some critics noted that the narrative leaves certain backstories underdeveloped, such as Delroy’s past and motivations. Nonetheless, the film succeeds in creating a memorable, horrifying experience, blending supernatural horror with a critique of exploitation in media. As the climactic moments unfold, viewers are forced to confront the lengths to which people go for fame, making *Late Night with the Devil* not just a horror movie but also a commentary on cultural fascination with live disasters.

*Late Night with the Devil* premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in 2023 and was released widely in 2024. For more on the cast and production, check out IMDb, and for additional reviews, see Flickering Myth and High on Films.

Post by Frank Moran on 25/10/2024 - 16:07
Tags: 
devil telvision night tv real Suspense darkness exorcism classic possession exorcist Supernatural people Movie festival Horror movie Halloween

SIMILAR MOVIES REVIEWS

Dead Awake review Dead Awake

2016

Whether you’ve personally experienced it or simply heard your share of other people’s horror stories over the years, it doesn’t get much scarier than sleep paralysis. Director Phillip Guzman (Sleep No More) makes this all too relatable real life phenomenon the center of his 2016 indie horror film Dead Awake. The film stars indie horror favorite Jocelin Donahue (House of the Devil, All the Creatures Were Stirring) in the lead, as well as Jesse Bradford (Cherry Falls), Brea Grant (Dead Night), Lori Petty (Bates Motel), and others in supporting roles. The plotline is textbook enough, following the adventures of social... Read More

Annabelle: Creation review Annabelle: Creation

2017

"Annabelle: Creation" falls in accordance with the advanced awfulness wave. It's the fourth film in "The Conjuring" serie — and the second spinoff to focus on Annabelle, a freaky-looking doll that resembles the Victorian-period cousin of "Child's Play's" Chucky — and it has every one of the components of a contemporary frightfulness hit, including the frightening doll, the spooky (or spooked out) kids and the house that is too huge not to be alarming during the evening.  On the off chance that exclusive it were, you know, scarier. "Annabelle: Creation" has yells and hop alarms, yet never feels really frightening. Obviously a... Read More

Damien: Omen II Damien: Omen II

1978

Jerusalem, Israel. One week after the burial of Robert and Katherine Thorn (in the first Omen movie), archeologist Carl Bugenhagen (Leo McKern) asks his friend Michael Morgan (Ian Hendry) to deliver a box to the guardian of Thorn's young son, Damien. He reveals that Damien is the Antichrist and that the box contains a warning and the means to kill Damien. As Morgan is unconvinced, Bugenhagen takes him to the ruin of Yigael's wall, showing him an ancient depiction of the Antichrist with Damien's face. Morgan is convinced, but the two are buried alive as a tunnel collapses. Seven years later, 12-year old Damien (Jonathan Scott-... Read More

Paranolmal Activity: The Marked Ones Paranolmal Activity: The Marked Ones

2014

It would be a wild exaggeration to suggest that “Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones” breathes new life into the increasingly fumes-fueled found-footage horror subgenre, but it certainly represents a shot in the arm for this series after 2012’s poorly regarded “Paranormal Activity 4.” Functioning more as a mythology-expanding spinoff than a proper sequel, this fifth installment (the first directed by longtime series writer Christopher Landon) smartly moves the setting away from airy suburbs to overcrowded working-class apartments, and introduces a winning sense of humor that almost compensates for its relentless reliance on every... Read More

The Exorcist The Exorcist

1973

The year 1973 began and ended with cries of pain. It began with Ingmar Bergman’s “Cries and Whispers,” and it closed with William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist.” Both films are about the weather of the human soul, and no two films could be more different. Yet each in its own way forces us to look inside, to experience horror, to confront the reality of human suffering. The Bergman film is a humanist classic. The Friedkin film is an exploitation of the most fearsome resources of the cinema. That does not make it evil, but it does not make it noble, either. The difference, maybe, is between great art and great craftsmanship. Bergman’s... Read More

Mercy movie Mercy

2014

There seems to be a never ending supply of Stephen King adaptations in the horror genre. Carrie (1976) and Misery (1990) both inspired by King’s writing are phenomenal horror films which have stood the test of time.  However with greats like these there are also an abundance of averagely made films based on the master of horror’s writing. Mercy’s (2014) source comes from one of his short stories (originally titled Gramma) found in his collection Skeleton Crew published in 1985. Mercy tells the story of a young boy George (Chandler Riggs, Walking Dead) who has a close bond with his grandma named... Read More

OTHER MOVIES REVIEWS

Ouija movie

Ouija

2014

As kids, best friends Debbie and Laine used to play with Laine's Ouija board. It was merely a creepy little diversion since neither of them really believed the game was connecting them to "other side." So it was just the eerie idea that some ghostly figure had its invisible hand on the planchette with theirs—moving the plastic pointer from letter to letter on the board—that kept them going at it, giggling all the while.  The rules they played by? (Laine had picked them up somewhere and said they should never be broken.) You never played alone.... Read More

Let the Right One In

Let the Right One In

2008

As Let the Right One In opens in a suburb of Stockholm during the 1980s, 12-year old Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) shows all the signs of being on the road to turning into a Columbine killer. He's a loner who is relentlessly bullied at school. His parents, who are divorced, pay him only as much attention as they can fit into their busy schedules. And his hobby is cutting out articles about murders from the local paper and pasting them into a scrapbook. This is not normal behavior even for a socially awkward boy on the cusp of adolescence. But then things take an... Read More

The Atticus Institute movie

The Atticus Institute

2015

Dr Henry West (William Mapother) is the cheif researcher of the Atticus Institute, a small group dedicated to the investigation of psychic phenomena during the mid 1970s.  In 1976 a middle aged woman named Judith Winstead (Rya Kihlstedt) is delivered into their care, as she exhibits an extraordinary level of strange abilities. Nearly 40 years later, the true story of what happened is recounted by those involved.  It seems as if Judith was more than simply psychic: she was a conduit for something far more malevolent…. The Atticus Institute was written and... Read More

The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project

1999

The Horror! The Horror! It's everywhere this summer. Look at the fear on the face of gorgeous Catherine Zeta-Jones in The Haunting, a $75 million scarefest from Twister director Jan De Bont in which Zeta-Jones' lesbian designs on Lili Taylor pale next to the hideous designs that a haunted New England mansion has on both of them. Or check out The Deep Blue Sea, with Cliff-hanger director Renny Harlin pulling every trick an $80 million budget can buy to put Samuel L. Jackson, Thomas Jane and Saffron Burrows at the mercy of merciless, supersize sharks. Screenwriter David E.... Read More

Clown the movie

Clown

2014

Hating clowns is pretty much a religious observance in Western culture. No one really needs to explain, ‘I hate clowns’, and no one ever seems to be indifferent to them, let alone like the things, save for women of a certain age who are into naff figurines; it’s weird, though, that so many people have an opinion on something they haven’t ever seen first-hand in their original environment. I don’t know many people who’ve even been to the circus or ever had clowns turn up to entertain them at parties, or if they have, it’s certainly not frequent and/or traumatic enough to... Read More