Review: 'Late Night With the Devil' is a '70s horror throwback that shifts from unsettling to disturbing
The horror artifact “Late Night With the Devil” shows the advantages of fully committing to one’s premise — which, in this case, is a faithful re-creation of a ‘70s late-night talk show where, literally, all hell breaks loose.
Australian writing-directing brothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes start with some backstory (narrated by Michael Ironside), of how Chicago radio host Jack Delroy (played by David Dastmalchian) was picked in 1971 to host a nationally broadcast late-night talk show meant to challenge the reign of Johnny Carson.
Try as he might, though, Jack can’t dethrone the king. Changing from celebrity interviews to shock-jock freak show stuff doesn’t move the needle. Not even a 1977 episode featuring Jack’s cancer-stricken wife, Madeleine (Georgina Haig), just two weeks before her death, is enough to overtake Carson’s ratings.
After that prologue, we’re told that we’re going to see the only videotape of the original broadcast of the show, “Night Owls,” when Jack returned to the air shortly after Madeleine’s death. It’s Halloween night, 1977, and Jack and his sleazy producer, Leo (Josh Quong Tart), have booked a Vegas mentalist, Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), and a magician-turned-skeptic, Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), eager to prove that Christou’s a fraud.
Carmichael is clearly modeled on James “The Amazing” Randi, the illusionist who went on Carson to debunk the claims of mentalist Uri Geller. Carmichael, like Randi, offers a six-figure check to anyone who can show the existence of anything paranormal that Carmichael’s skeptical science can’t prove to be phony. (I tell you, “The Tonight Show” back in the day had some cool guests, not just Jimmy Fallon’s party games.)
The sniping between Christou and Carmichael takes a nasty turn when the mentalist says he senses some unusual psychic energy — and then bad stuff starts happening. By then, though, Jack has moved forward with his big “get”: Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon), who brings on the subject of her latest book, Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), the 13-year-old sole survivor of house fire that destroyed a devil-worshipping madman (Steve Mouzakis).
June — whom, we quickly surmise, Jack has been dating — says she has proof that Lilly is possessed, and Jack wants to see it revealed live on his show. This being a horror movie, one can guess that things go wrong. But how wrong, and with what disturbing results, is where this inventive movie really surprises.
Long before the reveal, the Cairnes brothers show themselves to be masterful stylists. They capture the mood and production design of a ‘70s talk show, from the Naugahyde chairs to the smarmy sidekick (Rhys Auteri). Our attention becomes so fixed on those period details that we forget, momentarily, that we’re in a horror movie — until the blood starts to appear.
Anchoring “Late Night With the Devil” is Dastmalchian, a reliably unsettling supporting player (in the “Ant-Man” movies and “Dune, Part One,” among many films) who really shines in the lead role here. Dastmalchian conveys the creeping unease Jack feels as his TV career is circling the drain, which is nearly as terrifying as the horrors his show is about to unleash on America.
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‘Late Night With the Devil’
★★★
Opens Friday, March 22, in theaters; starts streaming April 19 on Shudder. Rated R for violent content, some gore, and language including a sexual reference. Running time: 93 minutes.