Late Night With The Devil (M18)
93 minutes, opens on April 18
4 stars
The story: In the 1970s battle of the late-night talk shows, Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian), host of Night Owls, is losing. To beat rival Johnny Carson, Delroy decides to make his Halloween special the best yet. Pandering to an America obsessed with all things Satanic, Delroy assembles guests with ties to the paranormal and demonic. Years after the broadcast, documentary-makers have created this film from footage of the show that aired.
Here is an interesting connection: Australian film-maker Colin Cairnes – who, with his brother Cameron, wrote and directed this unique and accomplished work of horror – used to work in Singapore.
He directed episodes of local sitcoms Under One Roof (1995 to 2003), Brand New Towkay (2001 to 2002) and Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd (1997 to 2007).
Fitting then that his latest movie is set in a television studio, a milieu that makes use of Colin Cairnes’ former life on Caldecott Hill before he returned to Australia to collaborate with Cameron on films, among them the cult horror-comedy 100 Bloody Acres (2012).
Filming in Melbourne with a mostly Australian cast, the two have made Late Night With The Devil a homage to American talk shows and network television of a certain era.
The laughs coming from the mildly sadistic interplay between Dastmalchian’s insecure host Delroy and his amiable co-host and whipping boy Gus McConnell (Rhys Auteri) will bring to mind The Larry Sanders Show (1992 to 1998), a satire centred on the life of a similarly anxiety-ridden talk-show host played by Garry Shandling.
Despite being set in one room – a television studio during one night of taping – the film never feels monotonous because the setting, characters and dialogue keep the levels of interest high.
This was a period after the cultural phenomenon that was The Exorcist (1973), a horror movie that helped fan fears of Satanic influence in rock music and youth culture.
Delroy is a man haunted by a tragic past, but just before the Halloween show, appears to have replaced grief with a hunger for success.
The set of mysteries opened at the start of the film – What could explain his sudden emotional switch? Who are his guests? And how will they help Delroy win the ratings war? – is answered in style, when the tension created in the first two-thirds of the story is released with explosive finality.
If there is a message here, it is that just because a nation has a moral panic, it does not mean that the source of the panic is fake. It might be horrifyingly real.
American actor Dastmalchian has, for years, been “that” guy, an in-demand supporting actor and familiar face viewers will recognise from Dune: Part One (2021) and The Suicide Squad (2021).
As Delroy the doomed television host, he moves through grief, egomania and terror in a vividly memorable way. He is an actor more than ready for a breakthrough.
Hot take: Comedy, horror and homage come together in style in this hugely enjoyable work.
