Late Night with the Devil
Yes, it’s great that go-to character actor David Dastmalchian has at last been given a leading role. It’s just too bad it’s in the service of such a mediocre film.
Packing immense appeal in its mash-up of ’70s talk show shenanigans and satanic panic, Late Night with the Devil squanders that potential with an overlong build-up that’s too disjointed to be suspenseful, as well as numerous cheats on its found-footage premise.
The writing/directing team of brothers Cameron and Colin Cairnes (100 Bloody Acres; Scare Campaign) get off to a strong start with a sharply crafted introduction on Johnny Carson rival Jack Delroy (Dastmalchian, simultaneously charismatic and smarmy), his rise to fame as the host of Night Owl, and personal and professional woes, including the death of his wife Madeleine (Georgina Haig, Once Upon a Time), low ratings, and his membership in a mysterious cult-like club for the rich and famous.
Full of confidently edited clips, this stellar preamble gives way to a combination of studio footage from Jack’s make-or-break, sweeps-week Halloween night 1977 special and what on-screen text claims is behind-the-scenes footage. While video sources for the show are clearly established — the Cairneses nail the period production design and fuzzy visual quality — there’s no reason why anyone would film Jack and his colleagues, especially since they occasionally discuss sensitive material and show no sign that they're aware of anyone filming them from a few feet away.
Though this particular installment of Night Owl is notably groan-worthy early on, likely by the Cairneses’ design, the B&W “behind-the-scenes” footage is the first sign of unintentional ineptitude on the filmmakers’ part and a cheap means of attempting to fill in a few blanks, but mostly plays as half-assed filler.
Late Night with the Devil picks up somewhat as mentalist Christou (Fayssal Bazzi, Shantaram) shows off his gifts and illusionist-turned-skeptic Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss, The Matrix Reloaded) pokes holes in his methods. But after one last alleged communion with a spirit, something’s clearly not right with Christou. An air of dread falls over the proceedings, yet the interruptions of interactions during commercial breaks prevent any consistent suspense from developing.
The film finally hits its groove with Night Owl’s next guests, parapsychologist Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon, Saw V) and her teenage patient Lilly D’Abo (Ingrid Torelli), the lone survivor of a satanic cult. Strapped to a chair and lulled into a trance by her reluctant caretaker, Lilly is taken over by a demon, a transformation achieved via standard possession makeup and vocal effects. Yet certain statements tantalizingly hint at a larger evil in the studio and Jack’s connection to it.
Greater thrills lie ahead with Late Night with the Devil’s standout sequence, featuring one character’s talents with hypnosis, and while the show grows increasingly eerie and dangerous, the filmmakers further betray their found-footage parameters with hallucinatory climactic imagery that’s inside one character’s head and in no way could be visible to others.
Fascinating though it may be, this oddball coda is yet another frustrating filmmaking cheat, but by that point the Cairnes brothers have so frequently disregarded the storytelling rules established in the introduction that it’s a miracle anything close to a coherent resolution emerges. One does, but it comes with the sense of a missed opportunity and leaves mere glimpses of a better film in its wake.
Grade: C. Rated R. Starts March 22 at Grail Moviehouse
(Photo: IFC Films)
