Late Night with the Devil – Toronto After Dark 2023
October 18 to October 22, 2023
FILM FESTIVAL
Toronto After Dark
Toronto After Dark 2023
This review was originally published as part of my coverage of the 2023 Fantasia Film Festival
A Halloween night episode of a late-night talk show goes horribly wrong in Late Night with the Devil. Night Owls with Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) was a once-thriving 1970s late-night talk show, which begins tanking in the ratings of Delroy’s wife Madeleine’s (Georgina Haig) death from cancer. Hoping to make a mark during sweeps week, Jack hosts a special episode on Halloween night of 1977 with guests including psychic medium Christou (Fayssal Bazzi) and magician-turned-skeptic Carmichael Hunt (Ian Bliss). The highlight of the episode is parapsychologist June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and her patient Lilly D’Abo (Ingrid Torelli), the sole survivor of a Satanic cult, who seemingly harbours a demonic entity.
Late Night with the Devil Synopsis
Late Night with the Devil is a found-footage horror film written and directed by Cameron and Colin Cairnes. Following a brief prologue detailing the history of Jack Delroy’s talk show, the remainder of the film consists of the Halloween episode of Night Owls in its entirety, complete with black & white behind-the-scenes B-roll during the commercial breaks. At the core of this episode is Lily, a Satanic cult survivor, who claims to have an entity named Mr. Wriggles inside of her. When Jack decides he wants to communicate with this entity, he ends up getting much more than he bargained for.
My Thoughts on Late Night with the Devil
Late Night with the Devil is an incredibly entertaining found footage film that is the sum of its parts. This includes the lead performances by David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad) as Jack Deroy, Rhys Auteri as Jack’s increasingly worried sidekick Gus McConnell, and Ian Bliss (The Matrix Reloaded) as incredibly dislikeable James Randi-esque skeptic Carmichael Hunt. Playing off like a much more polished version of the infamous 1992 BBC film Ghostwatch, the tension of Late Night with the Devil slowly builds up, leading to one hell of a demonic climax.
