Late Night with the Devil (2023) Review: Terror Goes Live

Is Late Night with the Devil worth watching?

Yes. Late Night with the Devil is a clever, confidently made horror film that turns the cosy format of 1970s late-night television into a trap, and David Dastmalchian gives a career-best lead performance. The Cairnes brothers build dread through the rhythms of a live broadcast, with its forced banter, commercial breaks and nervous studio audience, so that each segment tightens the screw. The reservation is that the found-footage conceit is not applied strictly, and the final stretch trades slow-burn menace for a sensory barrage that not every viewer will find as effective.

What is Late Night with the Devil about?

Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) hosts Night Owls, a syndicated talk show that once rivalled Johnny Carson’s but has been slipping in the ratings, and his personal life has been shaken by the recent death of his wife. On Halloween night in 1977, he gambles everything on a sensational special. His guests include a flamboyant psychic (Fayssal Bazzi), a professional sceptic (Ian Bliss), and a parapsychologist (Laura Gordon) who brings along the teenage girl she has been studying, the sole survivor of a satanic cult, who is said to be possessed. The film presents itself as the master tape of that broadcast, along with backstage footage shot during the breaks.

Late Night with the Devil is written and directed by brothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes, an Australian production in English that runs 93 minutes. It premiered at SXSW in 2023, and it was later nominated for best film and best direction at the AACTA Awards.

A period recreation that does the scaring

The production design is the first thing that impresses. The studio set, with its wood panelling, garish lighting and cheesy band, is recreated with loving precision, and the image has the soft, slightly smeared look of vintage videotape. It is not nostalgia for its own sake: the format creates expectations of a certain kind of harmless entertainment, and the film exploits that familiarity brilliantly.

The pacing follows the logic of a live show. Each segment builds its own small arc, the scheduled breaks become pressure valves, and the audience’s laughter and gasps become part of the soundtrack. The film understands how much unease comes from watching people try to keep smiling on camera while something is clearly going wrong.

David Dastmalchian’s slow unravelling

Dastmalchian, a character actor usually seen in supporting roles, finally gets a lead and seizes it. His Jack is charming and slick on camera, with the practised warmth of a veteran broadcaster, but behind the grin lies desperation, grief and a hunger for success that pushes him to keep the show going long after he should stop. Dastmalchian lets that tension show in tiny moments, a slightly too-long smile or a flicker of panic, and it makes Jack both sympathetic and complicit.

The supporting cast plays the talk-show types well. Ian Bliss is enjoyably pompous as the sceptic who treats the whole thing as a hoax, and the scenes between the guests carry a satirical edge about showbusiness and credulity.

Where the frame slips

The film sets itself up as a recovered tape, but it breaks its own rules; the black-and-white backstage footage and some later visual effects do not fit the premise of a single broadcast recording. For some viewers that will not matter; for others it weakens the illusion. The finale also escalates into something much more hallucinatory and effects-driven than what precedes it, which some will find a thrilling payoff and others an overreach after such a disciplined build-up.

Who should watch Late Night with the Devil?

It is a strong pick for horror fans who enjoy slow-building dread, found-footage conceits and 1970s period style, and it works well as a Halloween-season watch. At 93 minutes, it is tight. Expect disturbing imagery, possession themes, some graphic gore in the later stages, and references to cults and death.

If it gets under your skin, try these next:

• The Shining, a classic study of a man coming apart under the pressure of forces he cannot control.
• Get Out, another sharp horror film that mixes genuine scares with pointed satire.
• Leviticus, a more recent Australian horror film that also builds its fear from a very specific setting.

The verdict

Late Night with the Devil is a witty, unnerving and beautifully crafted horror film whose talk-show conceit is far more than a gimmick. The loose found-footage logic and an overheated finale are minor flaws next to Dastmalchian’s remarkable performance and the film’s sustained sense of dread.

Rating: 4.3/5