dreamer you're awake - Late Night with the Devil (2023)
Cast David Dastmalchian in more lead roles, you cowards!
Spoilers follow.
See this movie.
No seriously, see this, I will happily sit here and wait until you’ve seen it, but see it.
Have you done so? Good. Now, turn on your television sets and settle in for tonight’s Halloween special of Night Owls with Jack Delroy - I hear he’s got something special planned…
Late Night with the Devil
Written and directed by: Cameron and Colin Cairnes
Starring: David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli, Rhys Auteri, Georgina Haig, Josh Quong Tart
Run time: 92 minutes
the plot, in brief
Presented as a documentary, the film starts by bringing us up to speed on the career of Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian). Coming up as a late-night variety talk show host in the seventies, Delroy builds his audience while competing with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (which was at the time the most profitable show on television) and, while he’s successful, he never quite matches Carson’s ratings.
Nevertheless, Delroy has a devoted audience, a loving wife (Madeleine, played by Georgina Haig) and a solid public persona (apart from those pesky rumours about involvement with the mysterious The Grove society… ). Then, tragedy: Madeleine is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She appears on the show for a touching interview with her husband, and when she passes two weeks later, Delroy is bereft and the show takes a break.
But, sooner than expected, Night Owls with Jack Delroy returns, and while the show’s ratings begin to fall (as Delroy’s desperation to keep his shit together rises), an occult-themed special is scheduled for Halloween 1977 (coinciding with Sweeps Week). What follows is footage salvaged from the episode itself as well as from backstage interactions…
It does not go well, to put it mildly.
welcome to this meeting of the David Dastmalchian fan club, please take your seats
Be careful not to get possessed, please, we don’t have the insurance.
“where’s my sacrificial dagger?”
Oh boy, if you thought me dancing around the twists and turns in Immaculate last week was a nightmare, I’m about to tango for your amusement like the party clown I am.
Late Night with the Devil has been on my radar since it showed at the BFI London Film Festival late last year; I missed it at the time but when it was announced as getting a cinematic release in the UK I wasted absolutely no time buying a ticket. How could I not? Look at that plot description up there! That’s without getting into what happens when the film gets to the actual “show footage” which will have you sputtering WHAT THE FUCK???? as Night Owls with Jack Delroy goes full Ghostwatch and then some. And then some more. And then OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUUUU
So, without giving too much away, here are five reasons you should see Late Night with the Devil.
Reason one - David Dastmalchian
David Dastmalchian has been one of the hardest working players in genre films (and TV) for quite a while now (not to mention he’s resolutely one of us, a true horror fan) so it’s delightful to see him step into the lead role of Jack Delroy and knock it out of the park.
Dastmalchian makes Jack Delroy believable as a late night variety personality; warm, open and personable (while at all times with the veneer of professionalism), you can easily imagine yourself staying up late on a Friday and having him on in the background, like the seventies equivalent of Graham Norton. He also does a great job in maintaining that hint of both sadness (post his wife passing) and mounting despair (as the Halloween show progresses and his career is on the line) in his eyes; truly a performer who can tell you everything just by looking at you. I sincerely hope that he gets to do more lead roles (and that he keeps dabbling in horror) because he understands this genre with his whole person and it makes him a joy to watch even as he spirals along with the show.
Reason two - the world building
The format of the movie (as mentioned, it’s presented as a documentary) allows the Cairnes brothers to set-up their world in the form of a brisk intro to the “documentary”. Within the first ten minutes, we are presented with everything we need to know: it’s America in the seventies, seeking some relief from the relentless onslaught of violence on the news (post Manson, pre-Jonestown, amidst worldwide conflict) Late night variety shows like Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show offer exactly what viewers need. Into that world steps Jack Delroy, a fresh-faced former radio host whose main traits appear to be a gentle enthusiasm, and being a wife-guy (and also possibly being involved in some way to a shady secret organisation called The Grove). We are brought up to speed with the history of Night Owls: successful but not hitting Carson-level ratings, loyal audience, manages to go for at least five seasons before it briefly goes off-air after Madeleine Delroy dies from lung cancer. Show comes back on air, ratings are Not Great, we’re shown brief glimpses of Delroy trying increasingly desperate things to keep everything going (there is a very telling snippet of an interview with a woman who basically says to him on air that “he used to be cool, so what the fuck happened” before Delroy tells her to leave the stage).
Which brings us to the bones of this movie: the Sweeps Week 1977 Halloween special of Night Owls.
(incidentally, the voice-over during this section of the film is brought to us by character actor Michael Ironside who has the exact correct 1970s TV voice)
Reason three - Night Owls feels like an actual, functioning late-night variety show
By which I mean it has a band, a sidekick announcer guy (Rhys Auteri as Gus McConnell, who does a very good job of playing the theremin), a game audience and a host with just a tinge of desperation because he’s well aware that it’s late and he needs to keep your attention.
Bonus points for also having the backstage crew flit around during the behind-the-scenes bits, including a stressed out producer with a fabulous name(Josh Quong Tart as Leo Fiske). 10/10 would watch an ep at least once a fortnight.
Reason four - the special guests
On that night’s episode, we have:
Christou the psychic (Fayssal Bazzi), on the surface a huckster doing cold readings, until he actually experiences a real premonition that shakes him (and Delroy) and leaves him physically unwell.
Carmichael the Conjurer (Ian Bliss), a former magician, a current skeptic and an all-round dicksmack of a man who is on the show specifically to debunk any possible psychic phenomena and who genuinely needs to shut the fuck up once in a while (Ian Bliss, who I am sure is a lovely man IRL, plays this beautifully, by the way).
Singer Cleo James (Nicole Chapman) who… does not get to sing because they run out of time for her segment but she’s here nevertheless!
And the star attraction of the show: parapsychologist and author Dr. June Ross-Mitchell, and the subject of her latest book, Lilly…
Reason five - but specifically Ingrid Torelli as Lilly
Lilly is the sole survivor of the mass suicide of a Satanic cult known as The Church of Abraxas. As a baby, she was found by firefighters among the rubble of the Church’s compound. Dr. Ross-Mitchell, who has written a book on the case and who is the now-teenage Lilly’s guardian, has been having sessions with Lilly in order to understand what has happened to her.
Let’s get one thing straight here: Ingrid Torelli is fucking terrifying as Lilly. Even before we get to know “Mr. Wriggles”, the demon that lives in her, Lilly moves and speaks in a way that is so uncanny it just makes you feel deeply uncomfortable. She does a brilliant job in a very physical role, and when she does let Mr. Wriggles fully take control it will chill you to your very core.
*a secret sixth reason - there is some truly disgusting body horror which I will not divulge on but it is very much there and it is great and awful and I hate it and it’s glorious.
lastly
Yeah, I’m gonna bring it up.
No, I do not approve of the use of AI-generated art in this movie (it’s the title cards at the beginning and end of the talk show segments). While I appreciate the directors clarifying the extent to which the AI was used, I think it’s 1) such a missed opportunity for them to work with an artist on something hand drawn and, you know, more in line with the seventies of it all and 2) not something to be normalised, even in small doses. It is already fucking hard out there for artists to get jobs, and even the smallest use of AI-generated art feels like a bad precedent for the future. I’m an artist, I’m friends with plenty of artists, and I see their work getting stolen or ripped off on a regular basis. Don’t normalise this.
And it sucks that they decided to go this way because this movie fucking rules otherwise. It is easily the best horror movie of the year so far, it’s a bold, unique vision with a star-making lead turn from David Dastmalchian at the centre and it is such a breath of fresh air that when I left the theatre (a packed screen at London’s Prince Charles Cinema, my beloved) I felt positively electric. So while it has a big strike against it, Late Night with the Devil is still a must-watch and I do not think boycotting a tiny indie movie is the way to go. Call it out, check out artists like Summer Ray from This Is Fun, Isn’t It (who did her own take on the title cards), but see this movie.
And hire real artists!
Or support me via my Ko-fi page!
This movie was bonkers and amazing. So well done! And yes, cast David more!