Late Night with the Devil is a 2023 independent postmodernistDavid Dastmalchian on Late Night With the Devil: Interview|Consequence supernatural horror film written, directed, and edited by brothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes. It stars David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli, Rhys Auteri, Georgina Haig, and Josh Quong Tart. Incorporating elements of analog horror, "found footage" and documentary filmmaking, the film follows the events of a late-night talk show episode aired on the night of Halloween 1977, during which the host attempts to boost ratings by inviting an allegedly possessed girl onto the show.'LOCAL58' And The Birth of Analog Horror - Dread CentralSatan Wants You: The Real Life Inspirations Behind 'Late Night with the Devil' – Bloody Disgusting
An international co-production of Australia, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates, Late Night with the Devil had its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) on 10 March 2023. It was released theatrically in the United States on 22 March 2024 by IFC Films and in Australia on 11 April. The film grossed $16 million and was generally well-received.
Plot The film's prologue is framed as a documentary investigating an unexplained event that occurred on the night of Halloween 1977, during the live broadcast of a sixth-season episode of the struggling variety late-night talk show Night Owls with Jack Delroy, which competes for ratings with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Night Owls host Jack Delroy, based in New York City, regularly visits "The Grove," an elite California camp for wealthy and powerful men. After his wife Madeleine dies of cancer, production of Night Owls is suspended. Jack eventually returns and, seeking to revive the show's ratings, hosts an occult-themed Halloween episode featuring self-proclaimed psychic and medium Christou, skeptic and former magician Carmichael Haig, parapsychologist Dr. June Ross-Mitchell, and June's latest subject, 13-year-old Lilly, who is purportedly possessed by a demonic spirit. Carmichael offers a large check to anyone who can prove that supernatural phenomena exist.
During the broadcast, Christou suffers a severe headache and has a premonition involving someone named "Minnie." Carmichael dismisses the episode as a performance until Jack reveals that "Minnie" was his private nickname for Madeleine. Christou becomes violently ill, vomits a black liquid, and is taken to the hospital. June then introduces Lilly, the sole survivor of a police raid that resulted in a mass suicide by a Satanic church led by Szandor D'Abo, who worshipped Abraxas. Jack persuades Lilly to communicate with the entity possessing her, whom she calls "Mr. Wriggles." During a commercial break, Jack's producer Leo tells him that Christou has died of a brain hemorrhage in the ambulance.
During June's conjuring, Lilly becomes possessed and levitates in her chair. The demon claims to have previously met Jack "under the tall trees" and reveals that Jack and June are romantically involved. Lilly soon returns to normal, allowing the broadcast to continue.
Carmichael challenges June by hypnotizing Jack's sidekick Gus McConnell. Nearly everyone in the studio sees worms pouring from Gus until Carmichael ends the demonstration with the phrase "Dreamer, Here, Awake". A review of the footage shows that the worms were a shared hallucination, but the supernatural events during June's conjuring remain visible in the recording. Jack is horrified to see Madeleine's ghost behind him, while Carmichael accuses him of staging the events. Lilly becomes possessed again, her head splitting open and glowing like lava, then brutally kills Gus and June. Convinced that the supernatural is real, Carmichael begs for his life and offers Lilly the promised check, but she burns him alive.
Jack is transported into a nightmarish version of the show, where he relives its past before discovering his connection to the demon possessing Lilly. At a ceremony at The Grove, he made a pact with the Devil, sacrificing Madeleine's soul in exchange for fame and the success of Night Owls. This pact indirectly caused her cancer. Madeleine's ghost begs Jack to end her suffering. Using the ritual Athame dagger from Lilly's former Satanic cult, Jack stabs her to death, only for the scene to shift to the empty studio, where he realizes he has killed Lilly on live television. Standing over the bodies of his dead guests, Jack repeats "Dreamer, Here, Awake" as police sirens approach. The screen's "End of Transmission" message changes to "So It Is Done."
Cast
Production The film was executive produced by Australian producer Julie Ryan, soon after forming a new partnership with Umbrella Entertainment called Sanctuary Pictures.
Production on Late Night with the Devil was announced on 13 February 2022, with the Emirati studio Image Nation and the American genre label Spooky Pictures attached. Describing their decision to base Late Night with the Devil on a late-night talk show, writer-director duo Cameron and Colin Cairnes stated: "In the '70s and '80s, there was something slightly dangerous about late-night TV. Talk shows in particular were a window into some strange adult world. We thought combining that charged, live-to-air atmosphere with the supernatural could make for a uniquely frightening film experience."
The Cairnes brothers offered the role of Jack Delroy to David Dastmalchian after reading an article Dastmalchian wrote for the magazine Fangoria about regional TV horror hosts. Dastmalchian accepted the part after being sent a lookbook designed to resemble a 1970s TV Guide, along with the film's script. Dastmalchian's casting was announced on 24 June 2022. Ian Bliss, who played Carmichael Haig, was originally set to play another character, but days prior to filming starting he was told to read for Haig, as the actor who was originally set to play Haig had withdrawn from filming.
Late Night with the Devil was shot in Melbourne, Australia. It utilises practical special effects, including puppetry, along with digital visual effects.
Release Late Night with the Devil had its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) on 10 March 2023 in Austin, Texas, where it played as part of the festival's "Midnighters" section.
In October 2023, IFC Films and Shudder acquired the distribution rights for North America, United Kingdom, and Ireland. Umbrella Entertainment, Maslow Entertainment, and Ahi Films are distributing the film in Australia and New Zealand.
Reception In March 2023, horror author Stephen King was provided with an advance screener of the film and tweeted, "It's absolutely brilliant. I couldn't take my eyes off it. Your results may vary, as they say, but I urge you to watch it when you can." The film screened at the Sydney Film Festival from 9–15 June 2023.
Home media The film was released on limited glow-in-the-dark VHS on 28 October 2024. Box office Late Night with the Devil grossed $10million in the United States and Canada, and $6.8million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $16.8million.
The film opened on 22 March 2024 in 1,034 theaters in the United States and Canada, and earned $2.8 million in its opening weekend, the best debut for an IFC Films release; additionally, media outlets noted that the total included an estimated $666,666 gross on its third day. Expanding to 1,442 theaters the following weekend, the film made $2.2 million, finishing in seventh.
Critical response Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Varietys Dennis Harvey commended the film's production design and technical aspects, as well as that of the cast, and wrote that the film's "mix of vintage Me Decade showbiz cheese and Exorcist-y demonic doings is distinctive, not to mention deftly handled by the [Cairnes] brothers as both writers and directors." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com praised the film as inventive and its use of the found footage format as clever, and highlighted Dastmalchian's "phenomenally committed performance [...] really holding the film together as he finds the right tone between smarmy and likable that dominated so much '70s culture."
Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting gave the film a score of three-and-a-half out of five, criticizing the film's pacing as rapid but writing that "the ingenuity, the painstaking period recreation, a riveting performance by Dastmalchian, and a showstopper of a finale make for one Halloween event you won't want to miss." Trace Sauveur of The Austin Chronicle also praised Dastmalchian's performance and called the film "totally gimmicky, but the sincere commitment to the conceit is what really makes this work." Sauveur adds that, despite finding the film's conclusion lacking, "Late Night with the Devil is able to mine plenty of effective and fun ideas out of its premise, and it works as a potent examination of the price of success."
Mark Kermode of Kermode and Mayo's Take called it "really enjoyable", adding that he thought it was influenced by the 1992 British mockumentary supernatural horror TV film Ghostwatch.
Wendy Ide of The Observer gave the film a score of four out of five stars, praising its satire and comedic elements, calling it "[s]mart, cynical and at times devilishly funny, the film delivers a crackle of disruptive static to the demonic possession genre."
John Lui of The Straits Times gave the film 4 stars in which he describes the film as "Comedy, horror and homage come together in style in this hugely enjoyable work". For Entertainment Weekly, Allaire Nuss wrote that Late Night with the Devil, which she described as being presented in a mockumentary and analog horror format, was "the first great scary movie of 2024" and that she "adored every second of it".
Use of artificial intelligence
In the week leading up to the film's release, some reviewers criticized the use of AI-generated images which were not present in the version screened at SXSW. The directors said that they "experimented with AI for three still images which we edited further and ultimately appear as very brief interstitials in the film."
Accolades Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result AWGIE Awards 15 February 2024 Feature Film – Original Colin and Cameron Cairnes Fangoria Chainsaw Awards 4 November 2024 Best Wide Release Colin and Cameron Cairnes Best Lead Performance David Dastmalchian Best Screenplay Colin and Cameron Cairnes Best Costume Design Steph Hooke St. Louis Film Critics Association 15 December 2024 Best Horror Film Late Night with the Devil Kansas City Film Critics Circle 5 January 2025 Best Actor David Dastmalchian Saturn Awards 2 February 2025 Best Independent Film Late Night with the Devil Best Actor in a Film David Dastmalchian AACTA Awards 7 February 2025 Best Film Mathew Govoni, Adam White Best Direction Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes Best Screenplay in Film Best Lead Actor David Dastmalchian Best Lead Actress Laura Gordon Best Supporting Actor Fayssal Bazzi Best Supporting Actress Ingrid Torelli Best Cinematography Matthew Temple Best Editing Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes Best Original Music Score Roscoe James Irwin, Glenn Richards Best Sound Emma Bortignon, Manel Lopez, Pete Smith, Cameron Grant Best Production Design Otello Stolfo Best Costume Design Steph Hooke Best Casting Leigh Pickford Australian Film Critics Association Awards 22 March 2025 Best Australian Film Best Australian Director Colin and Cameron Cairnes Best Actor David Dastmalchian Best Actress Laura Gordon Best Supporting Actor Ian Bliss Best Supporting Actress Ingrid Torelli Best Screenplay Colin and Cameron Cairnes Best Cinematography Matthew Temple Critics' Choice Super Awards 7 August 2025 Best Actor in a Horror Movie David Dastmalchian
See also Sweeps week Satanic panic Tabloid talk show