Grade: B-
In Late Night with the Devil, David Dastmalchian, at last, has a leading role where he can shine. The man who recently caught my eye in memorable supporting turns in The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Oppenheimer, and The Boogeyman is all over his starring role as talk show host Jack Delroy. In real life, Dastmalchian has hosted some annual convention/event for Fangoria these last couple years. I bet those people will love that he did a film like this.
Most of Late Night with the Devil is “found footage.” We see a broadcast of the talk show that aired on October 31, 1977. It has a supernatural theme, with guests that include a psychic medium, an occult novelist, and a costume parade. But before all that, we get an introduction with a narrator who tells us about Jack Delroy and his show Night Owls. We learn that Delroy has enjoyed six successful seasons on the air, always aiming for that white whale of beating Johnny Carson’s ratings.
This backstory sequence is problematic because it reveals at least one detail that we just KNOW is going to come into play later, so we spend the entire movie anticipating its inevitable callback. The film could have easily jettisoned this whole opening part and jumped right in to the taping, where we’d find out what we need to organically, in bits and pieces.
For all its cliches and tropes (we get a young girl doing the whole “possessed young girl in a movie” thing), I was invested for much of the film, and thought it had a particularly strong first half. The first guest – a man who communicates with the dead – was my favorite. People like that have it so easy in front of a large audience. All you have to do is say “I’m getting the name Peterson. Does anyone here have that name? …or know someone who does?” The shoe is bound to fit somebody. In a later bit, we see something, then it’s different when the video playback is shown. I read a critic review which dinged that as a mistake – saying “why would we be seeing two different things?” I can explain that one away. Hypnosis is involved, and apparently we – the viewers – were under its spell with everyone else.
Found footage movies often have the problem of looking too well-put-together to be truly found. Late Night with the Devil suffers a bit in this department; in addition to the broadcast, we see behind the scenes footage that happened during the commercial breaks. Still, though, I’ve long been a lover of watching old TV footage from 30+ years ago. It takes me to that simpler time (whether I was alive for it or not), with all the ridiculous hair, clothes, and sets. The movie does a good job of evoking all that.
It ultimately doesn’t amount to anything in the end. They quite obviously abandon the “found footage” premise for the last few minutes, which is a nightmarish, surreal, confusing sequence. Mildly entertaining to see, but frustrating in how it doesn’t make sense or answer anything. It’s akin to one of David Lynch’s early short films. Late Night with the Devil was enjoyable to see on the silver screen, and I think it will prosper when it arrives on Shudder. There’s an intrigue to it, and it would make for a fun, quick watch at Halloween parties.
Grade: B-
Film Reviews by Mark 
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