The ideal late night host is hard to come by. I remember back in 2010 when everyone was scratching their head figuring out if they wanted to get more Jay Leno or have Conan O’Brien takeover the Tonight Show. The perfect candidate is edgy, but not too edgy, charismatic, funny, personable enough to get guests to open up, and most importantly handsome.

If you had tried to tell me that David Dastmalchian would be the one for the job I never would’ve believed you. No offense to David, and not because I doubt his general acting ability, but because in the past he’s been largely cast as shall we say, “weird little freaks.” He seems like he belongs as the star of the next Paul Schrader movie more so than appearing on television sets across America. And yet, his performance in sibling directors Cameron & Colin Cairnes newest horror film ‘Late Night with the Devil’ he absolutely gets the rating boost he would need for the gig.

It’s an integral part of what works about the movie, and what makes even some of the things that don’t quite skate by functional. The film claims to be somewhat of a documentary, opening with a VO that explains the setting of the late 1970s, and the table stakes for our lead Jack Delroy as he struggles to maintain ratings in order to not be swallowed whole by The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. During this introduction a few chestnuts of information are dropped. We learn that Jack Delroy (Dastmalchian) makes frequent visits to The Redwood Forests with some kind of secret society, and that his “non smoker” wife contracted lung cancer and passed away.

There’s a large degree of bluntness to the exposition dump at the beginning that does feel a little like placating, making sure that you don’t miss those clues for later in the film. But it’s not terribly hard to shrug it off once the actual show opens with Jack Delroy greeting and thanking us for letting him into our living rooms. The production design along with the performance sells the idea of a late night 1970s talk show markedly well. Not to mention the film has done a great job on something that many horror films miss, and that’s ramping up the scariness as it goes on. Like in William Friedkin’s masterpiece The Exorcist the beginning half has basically zero supernatural phenomena and is regularly punctuated by the moral of the film, “What exactly would you separate with to be successful?” A theme the movie’s great at underlining. At one point when Delroy convinces his other guests Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) to bring forth the being inhabiting her patient Lily D’Abo (Ingrid Torelli) so he can “interview the devil,” but not until after we hear a few words from the sponsors. A line Dastmalchian says directly to camera with what felt like a very subtle wink from him and the Cairnes Brothers.

This is of course when things go off the rails. The being that they initially refer to as Mr. Wriggles, harkening back to the aforementioned Exorcist’s Mr. Howdy, takes over Lily’s body and puts on a show for the audience. It’s so clearly the wrong thing to do, but Delroy needs the ratings, he NEEDS to beat Carson. It doesn’t matter that his life is great, that he should feel honored to be a host of a late night show in general. Life in America has taught us that if you’re not on top you might as well be on the bottom, and you should be prepared to sacrifice anyone or anything to climb the ladder. It’s certainly dangerous for Lily, Dr. June, the audience, but as long as the ratings go up it HAS to be a net gain.

The initial possession sequence has some solid effect work, but honestly the best practical effect comes a little later when the third guest Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss) hypnotizes Delroy’s sidekick Gus to believe that his body is filled with worms. Gus and the audience are hypnotized so they believe he rips open his stomach to reveal worms oozing out of him, and then for added flavor, a giant worm pushes out of his face. The effect was sick as hell, and honestly one of my complaints about the movie was we could have used one or two more like it.

As the film winds down Mr. Wriggles takes complete control of Lily, executing Gus first, then Dr. June, then Carmichael. Things get a little more abstract as we start to descend towards the credits, but the gist of it is Jack Delroy communes with his wife who he loved and who had passed away. It’s revealed that at one point on his trip to The Redwoods he made a bargain with this exact demon to get higher ratings in exchange for his wife’s life. “I didn’t think it would…” He mumbles as he realize the deal was being delivered. And then in the most Twilight Zone ending I’ve seen in a minute he’s trapped on the set of Night Owls, seemingly to do the show as long as he lives. The movie’s not incredibly clear about the table stakes, so interpret what you will.

Now to put the tiger on the table. I found this out the day after seeing the movie but there are three interstitial title cards that were developed using AI. Both the directors and Dastmalchian have sounded off about it, the directors largely just admitted to the act and mentioned it was only three images. Dastmalchian pointed out that it was unfortunate that this is what was taking over the talk about the movie because they had so many artists and set designers working and they did a wonderful job on the film that brought the 1970s Late Night world back into 2024.

I largely agree with Dastmalchian but I think the issue is bigger than that still. While it doesn’t sound like the use of AI here wound up with anyone out of a job due to the small scale of what was done, the precedent is still incredibly concerning. And on a movie that looks this good and did such a great job transporting us back in time, why cut such a small corner? It feels like it was done to see if it was a viable option, and that in the future rather than hire any graphic designers at all just let AI take over. I hope I’m wrong, but I would be remiss if I didn’t bring it up. I worry that the directors and producers of ‘Late Night’ made their own deal with the devil, and we very well could all suffer for it down the road.

3.5/5