We kick off the 2024 marathon with one of the year’s most buzzed about films. The horror community has had a pretty good hit rate recently when it comes to generating that buzz, so let’s see if Late Night with the Devil continues the streak.
The most impressive thing about Late Night with the Devil is that it touches on so many horror elements that we’ve seen a million times before, but combines and recontextualizes them into a final package that feels entirely novel. I had so much fun with it – the approach, the performances, the unpredictability – that I can easily see why it has garnered so much goodwill this year. It isn’t perfect, but I expect I’ll return to it every couple of years at least. The set up centers around a ratings-starved late night show from the 70’s which has resorted to some potentially exploitative practices on its Halloween show in order to reclaim market share from Johnny Carson and his ilk. The guests include the type of television “psychic” that specializes in crowd work (“I’m sensing a name that starts with a ‘B’… or maybe an ‘M'”, that type of thing), a professional skeptic/debunker of the supernatural, and the main event: Lilly, the sole surviving member of a Satanic cult, and her handler, parapsychologist June. Lilly is said to commune with devil, or at least a powerful demon, and the car crash spectacle of a live exhibition of demonic possession is too tempting to resist for the show’s host, Jack Delroy, and his producer. The proceedings are generally presented as a recording of the originally aired show interspersed with backstage footage, and the different film techniques, including the grainy film fidelity and TV show blocking and camerawork deployed for the show-within-the-movie segments that makes up the bulk of the runtime, are executed to perfection. One thing I didn’t care for within this “found footage” framing device, is an extended set up of pure exposition presented documentary-style as the opening to the film. It’s just an inelegant delivery mechanism for that information, and I wish that the filmmakers hadn’t saddled themselves with the found footage constraint that forced them into it. Later, when the film abandons the found footage concept for an extended, psychedelic journey into Jack’s mind, it is one of the better sequences in the entire movie, which further illustrates that the framing device was unnecessary.
That’s a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things, and barely detracts from the overall presentation. More critical to the film’s success are the handful of performances, especially since the truly frightening moments are kept to a minimum and reserved pretty much entirely for the third act. Thankfully, Late Night with the Devil hits a home run in that regard. All of the actors play their parts well, with a combination of believability and camp that is called for by the film’s tone and the slightly corny 70’s late night television setting, but a couple stand out for me in particular. Rhys Auteri as the earnest professional sidekick, Gus, and Ingrid Torelli as the troubled Lilly both played their parts expertly while also making interesting choices that helped them stand out from their scene-mates. The bulk of the praise must be reserved for David Dastmalchian, however, who plays our intrepid talk show host, Jack. Chances are that you’ve seen Dastmalchian in something, even if you don’t recognize the name. Rarely does he have the opportunity to play the lead role, though, particularly one that is simultaneously so layered and also so intrinsic to the success of the movie he is in. If he doesn’t come across as believable as a late night host, for example, then this whole enterprise crumbles. Yet, despite the fact that he has to be “on” as the host character for most of the runtime, he also has to pull off the man behind the tv persona, a man who has had his lofty ambitions all but crushed, a man who has lived through the public sickness and death of his wife, and a man who is desperate enough to make a Faustian bargain to ensure his success. What repercussions will tempting the devil live on television have, in the form or ratings or otherwise? Does this willingness to pursue fame at all cost hint at previous transgressions? Dastmalchian’s central performance anchors the movie while those questions are explored, and he helps keep the tone of the film relatively light and breezy compared to some of the misery-fests we have been subjected to over the past decade that tread similar thematic ground.
Late Night with the Devil is a little campy and a lot of fun, but it doesn’t sacrifice story or character motivation or even some thematic heft in order to show us a good time. The buzz has steered me right, once again, and I am happy to kick off this year’s marathon with a sure-fire recommendation. Let’s hope the momentum carries through the rest of the marathon! (Oh, who am I kidding, I’m in the middle of a Hellraiser series binge, the momentum is destined to plummet sooner or later.)
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