Oh man, was I excited to see this! Late Night with the Devil, starring genre favorite David Dastmalchian, is a found footage fiasco showing a 70s television broadcast with a live exorcism gone wrong. Having been out for a little under a week (at the time of this writing), Late Night has already gotten amazing reviews from the horror community and ominous earnings from the box office; the movie made $666,666 domestically during its opening weekend… no joke. So with this in mind and my horror heart not being able to wait any longer, I bought tickets for a Tuesday matinee to see this fateful last broadcast. Caution, there be spoilers!
And to my surprise, I walked out of the theater rather… whelmed. In no way did I think Late Night was bad, I just don’t think it necessarily deserved the hype it got. My biggest gripe is what it is labelled as: found footage. While we do see through TV screens and cameras, all of the commercial breaks are filmed from what I can only assume is another camera man that is (for whatever reason) allowed to record main character Jack Delroy as he talks about industry secrets. Why and how was that filmed? Not even a “we’ve got to film everything!” was given. We also cut multiple times to look at the audience, but there doesn’t seem to be a camera at the back of the stage to film them. And what about the end sequence where Jack relives moments from his past shows? Was that all filmed, or are we still under a trance?
The other part that bothered me was the goofy ending. Late Night almost hit it out of the park hosting a show with different paranormal guests. I was totally engrossed with the mystery behind possessed guest Lilly. But when it came down to it, Late Night went straight to “ghost of dead wife wants revenge.” Not a total letdown, but not what I was hoping for.
Don’t get me wrong, Late Night had so many awesome moments: Dastmalchian as Jack Delroy was fantastic, the effects looked cool, I loved the idea of a show gone wrong, and I did enjoy watching. But I feel like Late Night was missing something. I don’t quite know how to put it into words, but a low, droning bass that gives your whole body a sense of utter dread. I was amused for sure, but I wasn’t scared. It felt like a movie, not like real life as many other found footage films do.
Late Night with the Devil is a great movie, but for me personally, I would have enjoyed watching this more on my couch through Shudder instead of in a theater. Would I watch it again? Yes, at home. Do I recommend it? Again, yes. Just keep in mind that it may not be exactly what you’d expect.
What did you think of Late Night with the Devil? Let us know in the comments!
Great Review!!!
🔥🔥🔥