Late Night with the Devil

I'd heard about this movie for quite a few months. It got huge buzz on the festival circuit, and horror film critics on YouTube and social media were falling over themselves about it. Normally, I'm allergic to that kind of hype, but when even the horror community is saying a movie is worthy of attention, my antennas go up. I'm here to report that while it is good, it doesn't live up to the hype, for one very huge, gaping flaw. First, though, I have to praise what this movie gets right, which is most everything, really. The movie's premise is the lost master tape of a struggling late night talk show, hosted by Jack Delroy. He's trying to make a comeback after a personal tragedy, after having already been losing in the ratings to Johnny Carson (who wouldn't?) for years. This episode, a Halloween special, is packed with all sorts of intended gimmickry: a supposed medium, a parapsychologist who claims her patient is possessed by a demon, and a professional skeptic a la James Randi. The cast of characters feels very in tune with the interest in the occult that bubbled up in the latter half of the 70's; the skeptic even looks a lot like Randi, and has the same cash reward for proof of the supernatural gimmick Randi had. It's a nice touch of verisimilitude. The set design, dress, and on screen graphics are also pitch perfect for the era. Even the filming of the show is spot-on, using a 4:3 aspect ratio and just enough film grain to look like a master tape from 1977. Even if you don't like the movie, you have to give it up for how far they went in making this thing look and feel like 1977. The cast is a lot of fun, from Ian Bliss as the skeptic, to Laura Gordon as the parapsychologist/author, and especially Ingrid Torelli as the survivor of a Satanic cult mass suicide that is possessed by a demon. But the star of the show is David Dastmalchian as Jack Delroy, the host of the show. The way he can transition tones and balance moods is incredible. In one scene, in one moment, he can be concerned and maybe afraid to glad-handing, smug, and throwing it to a word from the sponsors. His performance is the axle upon which this whole movie turns, and he handles the lead like he was born for it. I'd only ever seen him as Kurt in Ant-Man, so I had my doubts, and he put every doubt to rest here. If for no other reason, he's worth the price of admission all on his own. And it should be said that the story here is also, mostly, well told (despite the one flaw, which I'm getting to). The slow drip of weird things happening, every moment or twist getting under Delroy's skin, watching him try to maintain composure and be a good person while battling his desire to keep his career alive while battling the grief over his dead wife, it's all done so very well. I loved the pacing, I loved the slow peeling back of layers and the little ways the show comes undone as it goes on, like cast and crew wanting to stop the show or even leaving. If it weren't for the one fatal flaw I've hinted at, this movie would be an 4 or even a 4 1/2. But now we must come to that flaw, and I admit it is totally subjective here. Your mileage may vary on how much, if it all, it affects you. That issue is the entire format of this movie, and how it restricts and affects the storytelling. The movie opens with a narrated montage that fills us in on the backstory of Jack Delroy, all to set up viewing this lost master tape. It makes the movie feel like some kind of mockumentary, in the style of CSA: The Confederate States Of America, or WNUF Halloween Special. The narrator even sets up that, when the show goes to commercial break, we will be seeing behind the scenes footage (shot in black and white and in a letterboxed ratio) that will add more context. This is where the problems start, though. After this opening montage, the narration and documentary presentation is done. It never, ever comes back. So ... what are we watching? Is this a TV show? A movie? Why isn't there more narration? Who filmed the black and white backstage footage? It is never explained. And then comes the ending, which drops the master tape conceit entirely and is just filmed like any movie ... but the movie ends like the tape ran out, and there's a blinking message on the screen saying END TRANSMISSION. I cannot express to you how aggravating this was for me. The idea of the lost master tape is so simple and effective, and they break the immersion in not one but two different ways. I have a hard enough time with found footage movies. I could've lived with the behind the scenes stuff without the ending, although it was nagging at me, but the ending -- which is also an avalanche of new reveals that feels more like an information dump -- becoming a standard narrative format shatters the illusion. I don't want to spoil anything, but let's just say there were ways to make the big reveals within the universe's camera that didn't need the movie to switch to an omnipresent one, and it depresses me they didn't go that way. It puts a huge anchor on this movie for me. I would still recommend seeing this. Overall, I enjoyed it, despite my issues with the last 15 minutes. I really liked the acting, I loved the atmosphere, and it gave me enough of something new in the demonic possession subgenre that it more than made up for the genre itself being rather played out. You might feel different on the ending. It might not bother you, and I totally admit I come from a place of bias against the conceit of found footage. My disappointment comes from the fact that they were this close to beating that bias, and they dropped the ball at the goal line. So close to excellent, but just not quite there.