‘Late Night with the Devil’ Finds Fresh Horror in the Tired Exorcism Genre
‘Late Night with the Devil’ Finds Fresh Horror in the Tired Exorcism Genre
Cameron and Colin Cairnes’ new horror film is a breath of fresh, demonic air.
I’ve reached the point where when I see anything having to do with the devil in movies, I simply clock out. There are times when exorcism/satanism horror can do some neat things, but for the most part, any new attempts seem to live in the shadow of The Exorcist or Rosemary’s Baby, films that use the devil as text, but represent greater fears rather than operating solely on the level of “possession by a demonic force is bad.” Look no further than last year’s limp The Exorcist: Believer, and you’ll see that the well seems to have run dry beyond “Look at this innocent child possessed by evil incarnate.” The horror sub-genre is so barren that I found The Pope’s Exorcist enjoyable simply because it had Russell Crowe doing an Italian accent and riding a vespa.
That’s why I was so taken with Cameron and Colin Cairnes’ new horror film Late Night with the Devil, a clever spin on both the exorcism sub-genre and the found-footage horror sub-genre. The film presents as a documentary on an episode of late-night television gone horribly wrong. Set in the 1970s, the show is “Night Owls with Jack Delroy,” and its eponymous host is a rising star in the late-night scene. However, after suffering both personal and professional setbacks, he and his co-producer have become desperate for ratings, which leads to more outlandish guests. The episode in question is on Halloween, 1977, and there he invites a spirit medium, a professional debunker, and a parapsychologist and her ward, who is also the subject of the parapsychologist’s book about demonic possession. As the show’s events start to spiral out of control, we see how far Jack is willing to go for success.
While there is your typical innocent-looking-child-possessed-by-evil here, the trappings are completely different, and so are the incentives. No one is trying to protect a soul; it’s all in service of ratings and Jack’s ego. David Dastmalchian, a stalwart character actor you’ve seen in some of the biggest movies (The Dark Knight, Ant-Man, Dune, Oppenheimer) finally gets to shine in a lead role as he carefully walks the line between sympathetic guy simply trying to find his way forward through grief, and a craven creature willing to do whatever it takes to overtake Johnny Carson in the ratings. It’s a tough role (especially in how he needs to channel a typical talk show host of the time while also being slightly off-center to cement the horror vibes), but he holds it all together wonderfully so that the larger trappings of the production fall into place.
Once that all clicks, you have a pretty insightful horror film that isn’t so much about exorcism but about what we find terrifying, what is deemed merely “spooky,” and why we desire to have these thrills presented to us in the first place. While the film has an underlying mystery, the larger question is why would anyone want to watch an exorcism for the purposes of entertainment? Are we really seeking to expand our understanding, or are we simply looking for titillation at any cost?
If I have one major qualm with Late Night with the Devil, it’s not with the exorcism stuff, but how the Carines are willing to discard their framing device whenever it becomes inconvenient to the narrative requirements. The larger framework is that this is a documentary and we’ve found a lost, unedited tape of that night’s broadcast. However, whenever the show cuts to commercial, we’re treated to some black-and-white handheld footage as if someone was planning to film this for a documentary, which makes no sense. There’s essentially found footage on top of found footage. Furthermore, when the film reaches its climax, the concept kind of goes out the window, and while I don’t think that necessarily renders the film moot (although it’s where Dastmalchian becomes key in bringing the whole thing home), anything that strays from the “we found the master tape” conceit slightly weakens the whole picture. If that’s going to be the hook of the picture, you have to find a way to ride until the end, not discard it when it becomes an obstacle.
Still, watching Late Night with the Devil, I couldn’t help but feel hopeful that directors are out there trying to find new ways to explore horror sub-genres. My hope is that IFC Films puts this on a bigger streamer around Halloween (it will be on Shudder starting April 19th, which is great, but Shudder is kind of a for-horror-fans, by-horror-fans streamer, so if you want larger cultural permeation, it needs to go to Hulu or Netflix or something), and that more people can discover this movie. But, if you want to get way ahead of the curve, Late Night with the Devil is now playing in theaters. If you want some inventive scares presented in a unique way, you’ll certainly want to tune in.