MIFF 2023 Film Review - Late Night With the Devil

Images courtesy of Common State.

Late Night with the Devil is destined to be a halloween cult classic. Aussie filmmakers Cameron and Colin Cairnes have managed to find a fresh take on the found footage horror genre with splashes of satire and a few drops of blood.

Presented as a taping of a lost episode of his late-night talk show, TV host Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) has one last shot to save his career. Broadcast on Halloween 1997, his guests include a psychic (Fayssal Bazzi), a paranormal sceptic (Ian Bliss) and a parapsychologist (Laura Gordon), with her subject (Ingrid Torelli), the sole survivor of a satanic cult. 

That is all that’s required for the plot. The less you know going into Late Night with the Devil, the better your experience will be. The script written by the Cairns Brothers is so well crafted, offering insights into the religious paranoia of the 70’s mixed with the world of late-night television. It allows the cast’s performances to shine through as longtime character actor David Dastmalchian uses Late Night with the Devil to showcase his talents as an unpredictable leading man, after years of supporting roles in blockbuster films such as Ant-Man and most recently, Oppenheimer. Dastmalchian portrays Delroy as a complex, emotional, but overall flawed man to such a point that by the end of the film, you wonder if you ever should have rooted for him in the first place. 

Meanwhile, another standout is newcomer Rhys Auteri as Delroy’s long suffering TV sidekick, Gus. Auteri grounds the film as its moral centre whilst also showcasing  some of the film’s funnier moments and craziest practical effects sequences. Bazzi and Bliss also get plenty of opportunity to chew up their scenery as Delroy’s eccentric talk show guests, while Torelli as satanic survivor Lilly, plays the trope of the creepy little girl so perfectly, it's as if she was possessed by Linda Blair herself.

This film is an entertaining surprise for horror fans. Given the majority of the film’s structure is centred around this fictional talk show, the first half of the film is slower and more expository due to the lost episode format. Before turning itself into an extended Twilight Zone episode, the film begins to play with the audience and its format as more supernatural elements come to light thanks to the incredible effects and use of camerawork to create shock. There are no jump scares. Just natural tension as it teases the audience to think of the worst case scenario, as the film progresses with an ending that will linger in your mind long after.

If you were to mix The Exorcist with The Tonight Show and have it directed by David Cronenberg, the result would be Late Night with the Devil. 

Late Night With the Devil screened as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival, running in metro cinemas August 3-20 and online August 18-27.

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