‘Late Night With The Devil’: Fantasia Review

Dir/scr: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes. Aus/UAE. 2023. 92mins

With both found footage and possession narratives having been somewhat done to death, it is impressive that Australian filmmakers Cameron and Colin Cairnes (100 Bloody Acres, Scare Campaign) have managed to blend them in a way that is both inventive and entertaining. That’s largely because they have couched their horror narrative within the parameters of a 1970s US talk show, with David Dastmalchian giving an excellent performance as a late night host who unwittingly unleashes hell on a live Halloween broadcast. Comparisons with the BBC’s 1992 pseudo-documentary Ghostwatch are inevitable, but Late Night With The Devil is distinctive enough to carve out its own niche.

The easy familiarity of this set-up only adds to the sense of unease when things go awry

Showing at Fantasia after premiering at SXSW, this is the second title of a multi-picture deal between US genre label Spooky Pictures and Image Nation Abu Dhabi; the first, Chloe Okuno’s Watcher, premiered at Sundance 2022 and had a UK/US theatrical release before landing on Shudder. Late Night With The Devil — which is set in the USA but shot in Melbourne —could well follow the same trajectory, particularly if buoyed by strong word of mouth. It should also put the Cairnes brothers firmly on the mainstream radar.

Dastmalchian (who can currently be seen in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer) is given a rare but welcome leading role as Jack Delroy, the charismatic host of 1970s US late night talkshow ‘Night Owls’. An opening sequence narrated by Michael Ironside establishes the backstory; by 1977, Delroy — who had never been able to match the success of (real-life) rival Johnny Carson — was a star on the wane, devastated both by declining ratings and the death of his beloved wife from cancer a year previously. Determined to turn his fortunes around, Delroy planned a spooky Halloween special; the conceit is that we are about to see the never-before-aired tape of that show, along with recently discovered behind-the-scenes footage.

A TV studio, with its myriad cameras and microphones, is the ideal found footage location, as multiple angles and audio can be utilised without straying too far from the realms of credulity. The Cairnes brothers deploy these with style, establishing a contrast in tone between the all-smiles nature of the on-screen material and the tense atmosphere of backstage conversations. From those we understand Delroy is entirely focused on chasing the ratings — and his own fame — and so his judgement is already compromised before the night gets underway.

The first guest is psychic Christou (Fayssal Bazzi) who has an extreme physical reaction after seeming to commune with a studio spirit, despite the cynicism of fellow guest Carmichael The Conjurer (a delightfully smug Ian Bliss) — a former magician turned skeptic clearly based on the real-life James Randi. Then, parapsychologist June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) arrives with her 13-year-old patient Lily (Ingrid Torelli, who bears a seemingly deliberate resemblance to The Exorcist’s Regan). Lily’s experiences with a Satan-worshiping cult have apparently resulted in her being possessed by a demon she calls Mr Wiggles (a neat nod to The Exorcist’s Captain Howdy); when she agrees to prove it live on air, things really begin to unravel

From the off, production designer Otello Stole and costume designer Stephanie Hook capture the inoffensive beige Seventies TV aesthetic. Everything is on point, from the brown-and-orange-toned set to the house band, led by sidekick Gus McConnell (Rhys Auteri), whose jaunty riffs (composed by Roscoe James Irwin) gradually blend with Glenn Richard’s ominous score as lines between reality and entertainment blur. The easy familiarity of this set-up only adds to the sense of unease when things go awry — and, when they do, practical make-up and effects really come into their own. Sequences in which Gus is put under hypnosis and Lily shows her true colours are squeamishly effective, and should go down a storm with a genre crowd.

But it’s Dalmachian’s performance that anchors the film. He plays Delroy as a fairly unremarkable man who struggles to separate his on-screen persona from his personality, and will do anything to stay relevant. His nuanced, increasingly desperate turn helps the film strike a delicate balance between scary movie, social satire and cautionary tale.