IFC Films’ Late Night With the Devil has its finger on the pulse of what exactly will impress horror fans. A combination of nostalgic ‘70s horror and found footage, the film is primed to be a classic in the making.
The movie resurrects the genre found in films like Paranormal Activity and sets it in one of the most aesthetically spooky times for horror. But that is where the nostalgia stops being fun and starts being disconcerting. The Stephen King-approved film seems eerily like something that could have actually appeared on late-night television at the time. Presented as a Halloween episode of a late-night show that never aired, the events start badly and only get worse.
David Dastmalchian stars as the host of the show, Jack Delroy, who invites the sole survivor of a cult suicide and authored a book called “Conversations With the Devil.” As they commune with the young girl on live television, an evil entity threatens to be released to the public. Siblings Colin and Cameron Cairns wrote and directed the film, and said in a statement (via Variety) that they were interested in the strange landscape of old late-night television.
“In the ’70s and ’80s there was something slightly dangerous about late-night TV. Talk shows in particular were a window into some strange adult world. We thought combining that charged, live-to-air atmosphere with the supernatural could make for a uniquely frightening film experience.”
They are not wrong about that. This aspect is so foreign by today’s standards that it is very possible this could have happened in one late-night television show decades ago.
Is Late Night With the Devil inspired by true events?
Using found footage would be an immersive way of portraying a true story, but alas, it is not the case with Late Night With the Devil. Delroy’s show Night Owls With Jack Delroy never existed in real life, and is not based on any show of the past 50 years. Instead, the exciting 2024 film will use the horror genre to demonstrate how unpredictable late-night television was at the time. It also gives the film leeway to show whatever they choose.
Late Night With the Devil will not be restrained by keeping true to real-life events. And that is how we prefer it anyway. If a story like this did exist, we’re not sure if we would want to know about it. A late-night host releasing the Devil on live television should stay exactly where it is — where we can comfortably enjoy it in fiction.
