late night with the devil [2023]

i'm tempted to write my shortest movie review ever:

this fucking movie is rad!  GO SEE IT   NOW!

without spoilers too.  because, at least for me, i didn't read any reviews or listen, watch or read any online discussions of this flick because knowing little about the events that happen in this gem of my beloved genre of horror is to see cinema magic at the first intensity.

the rundown goes like this, the host of a struggling late night TV talk show, a la the tonight show starring johnny carson, jack delroy, played by a brilliant david dastmalchian attempts to make the impossible possible at the start of sweeps week.  delroy is going live on the air on halloween night 1977 to try to summon a minor demon that parked itself in the mind & body of a young girl, lilly, played the equally brilliant ingrid torelli, who is the sole survivor of a mass suicide by a satanic cult.  the show is called night owls with jack delroy & has always struggled to compete with johnny carson's legendary talk show. 

but for this live midnight broadcast delroy has invited a psychic, christou, played by fayssal bazzi, a skeptic, a la the great randi, carmichael 'the conquerer' haig, played by ian bliss, who, like the real-life skeptic james randi. keeps a check in the amount of one hundred thousand dollars in his pocket to pay to someone or some organization who can prove that the paranormal is in fact real.  shit goes off the rails real quick with christou's visions.  yet, carmichael is on set to prove how fake christou's act.  indeed, carmichael is a know-it-all blowhard who has repeatedly proven that pychics & other paranormal phenomenon, are as real as a french-speaking duck.

this flick is played as a found footage movie where we are treated to the live broadcast & behind the scenes dramas.  the interstitial cards put onscreen as the show breaks for commercials are pretty cool with 1970s halloween iconography.  these cards are clunky & slightly off which makes the whole affair seem like the viewer stumbled on a live TV broadcast in 1977 on a UHF station.  the attention to the smallest details of 1970s set design, including the in-house band, brought a tear to this old horror fan's eye.  the filmmakers, brothers  cameron & colin cairnes, have invigorated my beloved genre.  this movie is fun from the first frame that reviews the economic & political instabilities of the 1970s, along with the tragic history of jack delroy who lost his beloved wife to cancer a year before this live halloween broadcast.  the cairnes bros attention to even the smallest details of the 1970s, including the growing panic of a perceived satanism in society, is a pleasure to witness.

& so, delroy's beloved wife, madeleine, played by georgina haig, plays a significant part of this story.  & when lilly comes on set, with her caretaker doctor, june ross-mitchell, played by laura gordon, we are greeted with a strangeness afforded to lilly in her affect.  which is fitting for a teen who has a demon living inside her & who was raised by satanists with the intended mission of lilly's young life to become a blood sacrafice to the devil.  

weird huh?  it gets better as the show progresses.  delroy needs his show to be number one during sweeps week.  so, here comes the devil!  i'll leave this short review right there.  to say more might entice me to reveal critical portions of the narrative that really must be experienced by viewers by watching this movie with fresh eyes.  but do note that this movie is a blast & i've not stopped thinking about it since i've watched it.  yes, this pic is that good.  

see it now!