Last night I had the fortune of watching Late Night With the Devil along with my two best friends. Despite the film’s extremely low budget, it was a terrifying ride. Analog horror is a genre that has spiked in popularity over the last few years. With many internet projects such as The Walten Files, The Mandala Catalog, Pizza Time Pizza, and more. However, Late Night With the Devil is the first to have a theatrical release.
Summary (Spoilers)
The film is presented as “Lost Media”, an episode of a popular 70s talk show lost to time. The film opens with an explanation of the host, Jack Delory’s, backstory. He had tragically lost his wife to cancer a few months before the infamous episode aired, and ever since has seemed more cruel and salty than before. Jack is known to be a member of Bohemian Grove, which is a private camp where all of the most powerful men in the world congregate to worship a god through satanic-like rituals.
The episode begins with Jack Delroy introducing his first guest, Christou, who claims he can speak to the dead. Christou communicates with an audience member’s dead son and then seems to finish his segment. But, right before a cut to the commercial, Christou screams out in agony, asking if anybody knows a woman named Millie, and that she is trying to communicate. After no response, he falls on the floor and his eyes horrifyingly roll to the back of his head. Jack’s response is a quick cut to a commercial.
After the break, Jack brings on another guest, Carmichael Hunt. Carmichael is a famous magician who has been known to prove spiritual theories wrong. He bets Christou $500,000 that by the end of the night, he will be able to prove Christou wrong. Christou, angry attempts to storm out of the room, not before Jack Delroy reveals that his wife’s private nickname was Millie, and she was the spirit trying to communicate with Christou. Suddenly, Christou begins to cough up vicious black liquid. Christou is rushed to the hospital. Again, cut to commercial.
After the break, Jack reveals his final guest, a little girl, Lilly, who escaped from a satanic cult not too long ago. The girl seems to be possessed by a demon whom she calls “Mr. Wriggles”. Delroy brings the girl on, along with Delroy’s private lover, June, who is Lilly’s psychiatrist. Carmichael continues to call bull on the girl. So, despite June’s warnings, Jack asks that they summon Mr. Wriggles to the show so they can prove possession is real. When the demon is summoned, it is very hostile. Lilly’s face transforms, and she now has a deep, raspy, voice. She taunts Jack and June for having slept together and eventually begins to levitate. June slaps Lilly and the possession session ends.
Jack still is not satisfied after this, he knows how much fame this could bring him. He then asks that June bring Mr. Wriggles back so that he can interview the demon. Soon after, he is interrupted by Carmichael who claims that he can do the same thing through hypnosis. Carmichael brings Jack’s co-host, Gus, to center stage and begins to hypnotize him, along with the audience. Weirdly, Gus starts to become very itchy and hot. He then takes his shirt off to reveal a mass of worms eating through his guts. Then, Carmichael snaps his fingers and everything is back to normal.
Carmichael claims that everything can be done through hypnosis, and that the same goes for Lilly’s possession. He tells the show to reverse the cameras to prove that everything he did was fake and sure enough, it was. But then, Lilly asks to reverse the cameras to her possession so the audience can see it was real. And sure enough, it was. Then, Lilly begins screaming, and bolts of energy come from all sides of her. Her head splits open to reveal a mass of light. With telekinesis, she breaks Gus’s neck, decapitates Lilly, and burns Carmichael to the ground. Jack can make a fast escape.
But then, he is back at the start of the show. Confused, he tries to escape but his mind keeps taking him back to different episodes of the show. He screams at the camera, begging everyone to turn off his television. Then, he sees his dead wife. She begs him to kill her, saying that she is the ultimate sacrifice he must make if he wants to be famous. The cult needs him to. He stabs her, then as his mind tunes back into reality, it is revealed that he has stabbed Lilly.
General Review
The directors, Cameron Cairnes and Colin Cairnes have created an extremely creative horror flick that should get the recognition it deserves. The film is very entertaining. Most analog horror films can get slow and boring, but this one did not. It invests the audience in each character and creates strong moods around each one. It is very rare to see a film with such a low budget that is still able to be horrifying. Despite the terrible special effects, it was spooky. Hopefully, this film will spark a new popularity in theatrical analog horror, and we get to see more over the next few years.