‘The Exorcist’ Goes on Late-Night TV in a Fun Found-Footage Horror Movie
“Ladies and gentlemen, please stay tuned for a live television first, as we attempt to commune with the Devil… but not before a word from our sponsors.” In Late Night with the Devil, the Australian brothers Cameron and Colin Cairnes recreate the atmosphere of a 1970s talk show, where the roster of the usual guests—Z-listers, creepy creatures and their handlers, spoon-benders—is augmented by the spectral presence of a servant of Abraxis. Late Night with the Devil isn’t scary enough to keep you awake all night, but if you’re up at the witching hour anyway, this tribute to a golden age of horror and a silver age of television is lovingly kitschy enough to make you stop spinning the dial.
The film purports to be a lost broadcast, the rediscovered transmission of an infamous episode of the fictitious UBC network’s Night Owls; the action unfolds mostly in real time, augmented with supposed behind-the-scenes footage taken during the commercial breaks. It’s the Halloween 1977 episode, apparently aired live; the camera pans across a studio audience in costumes and the announcer’s voice reads out the evening’s guests: a touring psychic, a Vegas magician turned debunker of spiritualist frauds, and the author of a book purporting to tell a true story of demonic possession… along with her 13-year-old subject.
The show’s increasingly flappable host is Jack Delroy, played by David Dastmalchian, who with his floppy forelock, boyish voice, and anxious energy has something of Conan O’Brien about him. Assisted by his bandleader-sidekick and frequent butt of jokes Gus (Rhys Auteri), Jack hopes to take on Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show with a sweeps-week stunt that will bring the show “back from the fuckin’ dead.” Behind and before the camera, Jack is surrounded by cynical showbiz lifers who would, as the saying goes, sell their souls for ratings. That the slogan of the show’s presenting sponsor is “Let’s shake on it” suggests how literally the film will take the metaphor of the entertainment industry as a devil’s bargain.