“I liked the pace and tension. It’s like a classic 70s horror film, which draws you in gradually. It avoids using jump shocks and schlocks until the crazy end.“
Con Nats
3.5 Crucifixes
Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) is a troubled talk show host. He took a year off his show after his wife passed away due to cancer, he’s trailing Johnny Carson in the ratings and he’s on the verge of being cancelled. His Halloween special needs to be just that. Special.
This sets up Late Night With The Devil as a documentary, with a serious voice over, about an actual TV show with ‘new, unseen’ black and white footage from backstage added.
Delroy invites a medium, Christou (Faysal Bazzi), Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss) a celebrated magician turned skeptic and June (Laura Gordon), an academic in the field of the paranormal. She’s looking after Lilly (Ingrid Torelli) a young girl with long brown hair, rescued from a religious cult. When Jack wants a demonic possession live on TV things start to go a little ‘Linda Blairy’…
I was pleasantly surprised to see this is an Australian production and Screen Australia funding genre films. Some of our biggest grossing films have been horror and shark films that have gone unnoticed here. And this opened in the US with a decent box office.
Firstly, the costumes, graphics and hair are absolutely spot on for the 70s. And Dastmalchian playing a US talk show host was impeccable. He’s had bit parts in big films (Oppenheimer; Teacher) and showed he can carry playing a lead role.
All the acting and dialogue are on point. Jack’s character is the only one with some depth but all the characters are rounded. Torelli, as Lilly, has been on stage playing Matilda, and she shows real talent.
There is no banal, corny humour being played out. Dastmalchian gets a laugh out of his cuts to the commercial break purely out of his timing. There is humour, and more than one nod to The Exorcist (even Jack looks like Father Karras).
The writing and direction from Cameron and Colin Cairns are very good, although the camera work drops any pretence of being ‘real unseen footage.’ (Just because it’s in black and white doesn’t make it feel ‘real.’) There is a lot of exposition to set up the TV show, but if it saves us an hour of back story, I’m all for it. And Jack reportedly joining a satanic cult and enjoying all the advantages of being a rich white male is quite realistic.
I liked the pace and tension. It’s like a classic 70s horror film, which draws you in gradually. It avoids using jump shocks and schlocks until the crazy end.
The final act goes a little crazy on the carnage scale and leaves reality behind. (Even The Exorcist was based around true stories.) It left me with a few head turning moments of my own, although my biggest one was to see the Australian funding. This is a pleasant surprise.
Con Nats, On The Screen
