Late Night with the Devil has an irresistible hook. Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) is a fading late night talk show host desperate for ratings. To boost viewership, he decides to book a supposedly possessed young girl for his Halloween show. After bringing out a psychic (whose routine ends with projectile vomiting), the little girl is brought on stage and the Linda Blair-inspired antics ensue.
This is a pretty good vehicle for David Dastmalchian. He’s long been a dependable supporting/character actor. Here’s he’s handsome enough to be a believable talk show host, but he carries a certain sadness in his eyes that suggests there's more going on beneath the surface. (Which, of course, there is.) Dastmalchian has charisma to burn as well, and commands the screen for the entire running time, even when the film itself begins to spin its wheels.
The best moments occur during the “live” broadcast, which is filmed on old videotape and features plenty of horrendous polyester fashions. The black and white sequences of the behind-the-scenes chaos during the commercial breaks are less successful. Also, the long scene near the end where the film drops its 4:3 television format and cuts to a more cinematic ratio could’ve been trimmed back some. (I know this will be streaming soon, but the vintage TV aesthetic looked great on the big screen.) However, whenever it hews close to its ‘70s-inspired live TV look, it’s rather effective.
It helps that directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes actually deliver the goods when it comes to the exorcism sequence. I won’t spoil what happens or exactly how it happens. I’ll just say I’ve seen enough of these kinds of Found Footage movies where the filmmakers cop out at the end and never show what happened. (I’m looking at you, Blair Witch.) This one is pretty definitive.
Ideally, this would’ve worked best with an hour-long running time (the length of the actual broadcast) as some of the padding is hit-and-miss. There’s still plenty of good stuff along the way (like the file footage of a Satanic cult that is a fairly spot-on recreation of Satanis, starring Anton LeVay). Hopefully, this will be a successful calling card for Dastmalchian, who deserves a breakout thanks to his fun performance.
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