LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL
FIVE SNAKES
by Eric Lindbom
Australian writer/directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes’ LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL (In theaters; coming April 19th to Shudder) juices a gotcha premise. In this buzzy, comedic shocker, a ‘70s talk show host hungry for a Sweeps Week jolt books a supposedly demonically possessed young girl and her paranormal expert and protector in hopes of on-air fireworks for a Halloween episode. Fashioned as a found footage vehicle, we’re treated both to the fateful broadcast (in living color) and black and white backstage moments highlighting the increasingly spooked crew and the frantic rationalizations of the show’s producer.
During a pre-credit sequence (narrated by macho flick cult hero Michael Ironside) we learn of once popular host Jack Delroy’s failed efforts to up seed Johnny Carson; Delroy only came close ratings wise when he wheeled his cancer ridden wife on for a tearjerking segment before her death. Now, his show’s gone moldy, his contract is up, and Delroy (a glib ringmaster who mixes hokey jokes from his writing staff with witty improvs) pivots to cautionary audience warnings about the looming shock segments he’s reduced to pushing.
As Delroy, David Dastmalchian, with era appropriate sideburns and a black shoe polish dye job, tightrope walks the film’s tricky tone between early laughs and looming scares. He’s no stick figure parody. We see how his ambition and desperation push him into a Faustian bargain sure to go badly (and hinted at by allusions to his involvement with a cult of masters of the universe that meet in an undisclosed forest for ritual hijinks).
The game cast also includes Ian Bliss as a condescending, buzz kill magician obsessed with debunking mystics (cue the Uri Keller spoon bending reference), Laura Gordon as the worried paranormal therapist and Rhys Auteri as Delroy’s good guy sidekick Gus, a dead ringer for Larry Sanders’ Hank Kingsley (Jeffrey Tamblor). Ingrid Torelli ably fills the crucial Linda Blair shoes as eerily polite, Lilly who seems eager to be possessed; she’s shackled to her chair.
There’s a reason the Cairnes didn’t set their story during say the Jerry Springer and Maury Povich era with its trailer trash wrestling matches and paternity tests. The brothers instead lovingly recall a peekaboo, freak show period of late night talk where early stage punkers, bikers and yes Satanists were trotted out like zoo animals. These sometimes combative guests were briefly as frequent as schmoozing stars plugging their movies and entranced insomniac voyeurs still shook by the Manson murders. So, Deloy’s fictional “Night Owls” show is more in sync with Tom Snyder’s THE TOMORROW SHOW or THE DON LANE SHOW than Carson’s old school rivals (Merv, Mike Douglas, and Joey Bishop).
The ‘70s of course was also when THE EXORCIST ruled and numerous cursed filmmakers still crash and burn in their weak tea knock offs by leaning too heavily into its reverential religious elements. LATE NIGHT, with a scene of projectile vomiting and some head spins, is a far more effective EXORCIST salute since it mainlines director William Friedkin’s concussive you-are-there documentary approach to possession.
Given the Cairnes’ canny archival eye for the graphic fonts, clothes and hairstyles of the bell bottom decade and their period specific wit (a Burt Reynolds joke!), some will make a case for the film as a horror comedy. Yet, the front loaded laughs enable the filmmakers to practice the lost art of keeping the powder dry. Our dread grows incrementally before a scorcher finale worth the wait.
Fiendishly clever, funny, and fierce, LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL will translate seamlessly to home screens big or small for those who miss its fleeting theatrical run. As its mercenary show producer rightly tells an increasingly worried Delroy, it’s good TV.
Eric Lindbom is a hardcore horror buff with a strong stomach, weaned on the Universal classics from the ’30s and ’40s. He’s written film and/or music reviews for City Pages, Twin Cities Reader, LA WEEKLY, Request magazine and Netflix. He co-edits triggerwarningshortfiction.com, a site specializing in horror, fantasy and crime short stories with illustrations by co-editor John Skewes. He lives in Los Angeles.
