Late Night with the Devil [2024]
“Good evening, night owls. I’m your host, Jack Delroy.”
There’s a lot to be said about early works, pieces that try [to varying degrees of success] to inspire retro looks and feels, and those that do new things with old plots. 2024’s excellent entry into the horror market, Late Night with the Devil, hits all those marks and hits them brilliantly. From brothers Cameron and Colin Cairnes comes a classic-horror love letter the genre so dearly deserves. With spooky The Exorcist DNA, effects that remind me of the original Ghostbusters [in the best way], and the always difficult-but-rewarding single location setting, Late Night with the Devil is sure to become a cult staple.
Talk show host, Jack Delroy, just wants to get ahead in the dog-eat-dog world of television. Competing with the likes of Johnny Carson, the overhead lights seem dim, and the prospects of his future seem bleak as, week after week, and ceremony after ceremony, the awards and ratings just aren’t adding up. Maybe some friends in high [low] places, however, can turn things around… The only problem? Every favor has a price.
Late Night with the Devil [similar to 2021’s Oxygen] is a film that reminds us why pacing and plot-density are so important. Right from the get-go we’re inundated with names, concepts, conflicts, places, needs and wants. The film wastes no time setting the scene and stakes right in front of us, allowing the audience to immediately engage on the same level as the characters therein. Once set, we’re immediately thrown into the mix and bolted down for the ride — seeing each event, talking to each guest, and riding out each tense and increasingly weird commercial break right alongside everyone else. As a linear story, and one told with almost no omnipresent information, Late Night with the Devil creates a truly excellent atmosphere that soothes you into a strangely uncomfortable relaxed state; almost like a hot-tub that you’re not entirely sure you’re allowed to be in. It’s warm, it’s nice, it’s familiar… but are you sure you should stay? It’s part of the timeshare… but the listing didn’t specifically say you can use it. It didn’t say you couldn’t either… It’s probably fine. If only you could stop thinking about the proverbial frog in the slowly boiling water…
From cinematography to performances, Late Night nails its aesthetic and goals to a T. While I do think that most films shot in 4:3 are kind of a gimmick [albeit one that sells me every time], the artistic direction and setting make it an obvious choice here, though not one that’s used as a mere visual or forgotten choice. The film mixes aspect ratios throughout to great effect, without any one feeling jarring or cheap, and really works very hard to establish more of that stellar atmosphere I described above. Various states of color saturation, light and dark contrast, and perfectly researched television-style framing, zoom, and angled shots bring to life the set of Delroy’s “Night Owls”. Likewise, every character is both interesting and engaging, without any feeling flat, needless, or forgettable, and the writing does an excellent job of making you uneasy around some, outright disdainful of others, and empathetic when the plot requires it. It’s an impressive piece of writing that I think mostly only flounders from a couple of off-kilter scenes, and a pacing issue near the end.
“Now, Lilly, you don’t have to look at the camera..
You can actually talk directly to me.”
Late Night with the Devil is a film that’s being better received than I thought it might be [heralded with mid-to-high 7’s almost across the board <Rotten Tomatoes ratings are an approval rating, not a “score”; it’s score is a 7.2-7.9 there>]. This is an easy one for audiences not in the know to accidentally get invited to or intrigued by, and then feel horribly let down afterwards. It’s “not like most girls”, as the saying goes. Unlike most things with a strict “horror” genre-tag and an “R” rating, Late Night with the Devil is largely more about the conscious engagement of its journey, rather than the thrill of its ending. It’s a journey about manipulation, sacrificing others for personal success, and skepticism in the face of “obvious” truths. I think that, as a concept and general piece of writing, Late Night is absolutely 10/10 brilliant. While all of its production follows suit, it does have a handful of execution foibles that drag the piece down in terms of final score and general entertainment value.
Late Night with the Devil’s plot and endpoint are almost entirely transparent. This isn’t criticism, I think that this is the rare film where it’s actually a strength. The set-up and set-ting of this film lay out how it [almost certainly] has to end very early on, and that mostly allows the audience to sit tensely, waiting for the bang from the other room when the shoe finally drops. Where this hits a couple of bumps is that there’s one or two scenes where characters do things that clearly only exist to either further or allow future plot to happen. They don’t actually make all that much sense, which is mostly only noticeable and problematic because the rest of the film is so grounded and plain. It truly feels like you’re watching a talk-show that you genuinely want to be involved in almost the whole way through. These couple scenes — combined with the cliff just following the climax — really make the epilogue and ending difficult to swallow. It’s not that either the climax or the ending are bad [they’re both quite excellent individually], it’s just that the climax marks such a strongly resolute end-point for everything the film has been building to, that you’re sort of done… and then it keeps going, and insists you stay engaged through some quite boring and horribly spoon-fed storytelling that feels like left over script the creators just couldn’t let go of. Again, neither piece is bad on its own, it’s just that they don’t feel like they mesh — it feels like the film had two endings and nobody wanted to sacrifice one for the other.
Ironic.
Despite what feels like a second ending tacked onto an 80-minute movie, Late Night with the Devil is still a very easy recommendation for fans of the genre, or those interested in up-and-coming creators doing something really different within the space. This film is creative and lush through its spartan use of effects and mindfully human characters, it speaks a language not often engaged with inside the horror space, and it shows a patience that I wish was extended just a little further through better weaving of its editing. Despite my quibbles and gripes, however, Late Night with the Devil has firmly cemented the Cairnes brothers as ones to watch moving forward. There’s a vision and tact and approach within this work that I can’t wait to see expounded upon with future films and worlds, and I hope you all take the time, mind the sign that says “applause” above your seats, and spend a Late Night with the Devil yourselves.
