By Geno McGahee
It took me a little while to finally get around to this one. LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL had a lot of buzz around it and, after watching it, I can see why. It’s not the first of this sort with GHOSTWATCH and WNUF HALLOWEEN SPECIAL coming before, but this one is, arguably, better.
Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) is a late night talk show host in 1977 and has Johnny Carson in his sights. He struggles to get the traction to achieve the top spot and the frustration sets in. As he continues to become the king of late night, his wife, Madeline (Georgina Haig), gets lung cancer and dies. Jack takes a month off and plans a return with a Halloween special like no other.
The show begins with Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), a psychic, much like John Edward. He goes to the crowd and starts cold reading them. He misses a lot but eventually finds a mother and daughter that he accurately reads. Christou starts looking visibly nervous as he realizes that he may have tapped into something. This leads to the arrival of the Amazing Randi parody, Carmichael (Ian Bliss). I’m happy somebody finally shoved it up Amazing Randi’s ass. Am I the only one that doesn’t like how he hounded poor Uri Geller? Randi is lucky that Geller didn’t bend him over like a spoon.
The show goes into chaos with Christou has a medical episode and gets even crazier when Jack brings on June (Laura Gordon) and her patient, Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), a teenager that is apparently possessed by a demon. Desperate for ratings, Jack insists on a display where Lilly will allow the demon to come out. June sits across from Lilly and it gets crazy with levitation and some insight from the demon, including a mention of the Bohemian Grove, where Jack may have done something he shouldn’t have. For those that don’t know what the Bohemian Grove is, look it up. It’s scarier than any movie you’ll see.
As this goes on, Carmichael continues to dismiss it all, but Jack is starting to get impacted by what he sees and believes that something sinister is happening. He’s not the only one as much of the crew is leaving. Jack stays the course though because he wants to save the show and get ratings that will put him on top. It begins to happen as the show gets crazier and crazier.
The ending of the film has gotten mixed reviews, but I found it very effective. With all of the ugliness getting exposed in music and in film (if Epstein’s list is ever released), this film gently comments on it with Jack selling his soul to the business and doing things he would have never done otherwise.
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL is a very fun film that is done incredibly well. I liked how it was set in the 1970s and the inclusion of Bohemian Grove and Amazing Randi. I highly recommend this one.
