Staff Pick!
Late Night with the Devil is a horror film written and directed by Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes. It is about a well-known late-night talk show program called “Night Owls” in 1977 airing its annual Halloween episode, and as the ratings have been in decline, this is a make-or-break episode for the show and host. The film stars David Dastmalchian (Oppenheimer) as host Jack Delroy, who is interviewing several guests, most of whom have a connection to the paranormal in some way.
The first guest is a psychic medium named Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), who can dial in on the presence of the dead among audience members. The second is a skeptic named Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), known for disproving frauds who say they have psychic abilities. And the last guests are June (Laura Gordon), a PhD paranormal psychologist, and Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), a young girl who June is the guardian of. When interviewed, June and Lilly explain that Lilly has a demon inside of her named Mr. Wriggles. As the evening goes on, the guests being interviewed are asked about their history with the paranormal, and things get progressively worse.
This film does a fantastic job of capturing that 70’s aesthetic for the set design and overall style of the cinematography. The wardrobe, hairstyles, and everything else was pretty spot-on, and there were also some pretty cool practical, and digital effects mixed throughout the film that were executed perfectly. The digital effects weren’t cheesy-looking, and the practical effects were solid. Seems like they paid extra attention to this, and it shows. A couple of scenes took us by surprise with some of the gore, and although sporadic, it paid off when it was necessary. The production quality of this film was top-notch in general, and the acting was fantastic as well. There are a couple of neat surprises in there that we also really enjoyed.
It’s nice to see something different in horror in 2024. There have been films that have pulled off a similar concept in the past, but it is a breath of fresh air to see something like this today. It’s not often a pair of writers and directors who are somewhat new to the genre take a risk on a period piece and something a little outside of the box and hit a home run, but Colin and Cameron Cairnes did an excellent job doing just that.
Overall, we highly recommend this to any horror fans. Everything about it was quality and it had a unique premise that delivered on so many levels. While Late Night with the Devil wasn’t the most terrifying film, it had some excellent moments of horror mixed in throughout the evening of television and was everything it needed to be. This episode of Night Owls is not one to be missed.
Late Night with the Devil was released on April 19, 2024, and is a Shudder exclusive. Sign up for free and let us know what you think!
