Anoraks Assemble

Late Night With the Devil is a 2023 supernatural horror film, written and directed by Colin and Cameron Cairnes.

The film is partly ‘found footage’ and tells the story of late night TV chat show host Jack Delroy, who, on Halloween 1977, invites an allegedly possessed girl onto his show in order to try and communicate with the entity. He hopes that this event will help boost his falling ratings.

Things start to go wrong, gradually at first, which help to ratchet up the tension, until all hell is literally let loose.

So firstly, the positives, and there are plenty.

David Dastmalchian is just wonderful as Jack, the confused host who is still mourning the shocking death of his beloved wife. However, as the story unfolds, we start to see another side to him and his unending quest for good TV ratings.

What is the price of fame and how much is he willing to pay?

Also, Ingrid Torelli, who plays the possessed Lilly, is utterly terrifying. She has a somewhat otherworldly quality about her and the way she smiles when everyone else is losing their shit is actually quite disturbing.

The films looks great, a really 1970s period piece, and when the scares start they are very memorable. The scene when June – the parapsychologist and Lilly’s guardian – first ‘talks’ to the entity is quite shocking, as are the moments of body horror involving Jack’s sidekick Gus, which should keep the gore-hounds happy.

The film asks some interesting questions about the price of fame and exactly how far people will go to achieve success.

For me, where the film falls down is the ending. It does fizzle out a little, as though the writers had this brilliant idea (and it really is a brilliant idea), but weren’t entirely sure how to end it.

However I can live with that because Late Night With the Devil is very original and has much to recommend. The ending may be a bit lacklustre but it is a lot of fun getting there.