Late Night with The Devil

Cameron and Colin Cairnes’ retro horror jaunt LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL has an irresistible cult-baiting premise. The year is 1977, Satanic panic is brewing and late night talk show host Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian, who with recent appearances in THE BOOGEYMAN & THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER is carving out some impressive genre star cred) is desperate for ratings (presumably to one up contemporaries like Johnny Carson). Unfortunate domino tiles begin to line up involving an impromptu conjuring of a certain “Mr.Wiggles” a demonic force that speaks through a pretty yet creepy young girl named Lily (Ingrid Torelli) who is the subject of a recent book (that recalls the infamous “Michelle Remembers”) on none other than Halloween night (Speaking of Halloween night, fans of BBC’s GHOSTWATCH (’92) should have a general idea of what’s in store). There’s little room for disbelief as Lily begins to spout information she herself could not possibly know as her chair alarmingly levitates. Eventually chaos reigns and audience members flee as hallucination and reality converge while the fully possessed Lily dispatches anyone who gets in the way of her exposing a massive skeleton in the not so innocent Delroy’s Faustian bargain lined closet.

LATE NIGHT is consistently entertaining thanks to it’s central performances (Dastmalchian is fantastic and Torelli’s arrival enlivens the proceedings even further) and the delicious anticipation of witnessing doubting Thomas “Carmichael the Conjurer” (Ian Bliss) proved wrong in his cynical skepticism. It’s not all smooth sailing though as the part faux-documentary (with Michael Ironside as narrator), part found footage, part backstage pass, part dream/delusion with a side of delirium, struggles tonally due to an indecisive foundation. Unlike the aforementioned GHOSTWATCH, LATE NIGHT doesn’t have much of a desire to fully commit to convincing the viewer of its own reality which gives it ample creative space to play around in but also dilutes the scares. It’s almost as if LATE NIGHT, by constantly pointing out different levels of artifice, shoots off its own foot in the process. There’s no real danger in a cardboard cut-out world. Still, no reason to throw out the possessed baby with the holy bathwater. This film’s glib, gimmicky nature may prevent it from getting truly under one’s skin but that doesn’t stop it from being a enjoyable send-up and a future shoo-in low commitment annual Halloween watch.