Late Night with the Devil (2023) - Review

When you think of found footage horror films, traditionally you think about the home video-style camera work and the handheld camcorders but this found footage film, Late Night with the Devil is a different kind of found footage film shot in the style of a late night talk show from the 1970's.

This film is a different kind of horror altogether and I think it's incredibly done with a different approach to a tired subgenre of horror and with an extremely talented cast and incredible visual effects it's garnered somewhat of a cult following in the just over 1 year since its release as a Shudder original film.

Late Night with the Devil (2023) Shudder Original Film poster

The story of Late Night with the Devil is one we have seen before but in a few very different ways but none like this. The film opens with a little bit of background on what we are about to watch as if this were a documentary. We hear a bit about Jack Delroy, our main character in this story, and how his struggling late-night talk show was about to end its run and how he was rumored to be a part of a cult in southern California and suddenly his beloved wife passes away. That's the setup we get for the meat of the film which is presented as a found footage reel of the final night that Night Owls with Jack Delroy aired live. This is a Halloween special so it's made to feature some spooky guests including a psychic, a demonologist and a victim of a satanic cult, as well as a skeptic who is offering loads of money for any proof that the supernatural exists. All of these guests meet some unfortunate fates during the live taping of the show. The psychic shows that he's actually legit when he gets a message from Jack's deceased wife and becomes catatonic and later passes away off-screen from injuries. The skeptic is seemingly burned alive by the possessed girl and the demonologist ends up being decapitated on screen by the same girl she rescued from the cultists. The ending is one that many people speculate about to this day and I think that makes it insanely interesting to rewatch in different mindsets.

This film is not without controversy however as there is a rumor (I'm not sure if it is true or not so this is all a rumor or speculation) that a few pieces of art for the film were made via Artificial intelligence without proper disclosure to viewers in marketing content for the film. This film was created in the very beginning stages of AI becoming way more accessible and mainstream and with its 2024 release date accompanied the widespread information and usage of AI in day-to-day life as it became more normal to see and people, especially in the artistic communities of the world became fearful and unimpressed with the usage of AI in feature films without proper disclosure if at all. Regardless of how you feel about AI, proper marketing and disclosure regarding things like this should be the norm for film companies and filmmakers as we enter the age of AI being more and more present in our lives.

The visual and costume elements of this film are insanely impressive and the visual effects are surprisingly mostly practical with a few enhancements via SFX and computer-generated effects. The costumes look straight out of the 1970s and the makeup is incredibly well-done especially for our demon girl Lily who goes through quite the journey on her way to embodying the demon Abraxis. In the end of the film we even see an exorcism scene go awry and the ending to this film is a weird one but it gets you thinking and invites you to rewatch the film again and again and I think that's a super strong point for any film is the re-watchability of it all since films are meant to be watched over and over again and the mark of a good horror film that invites re-watches is that the scares and the twists don't get old with each watch and they still have some sort of effect on you as the viewer weather that's intrigue or scariness or confusion. A good film makes you think and especially with horror films, thinking about the implications of someone's actions or even inactions within the story give way to make you think about something outside of the story that's handed to you by the filmmakers. Late Night With the Devil is one of those films that you can really think about outside of the stuff we were shown in the film either in regards to Jack Delroy and his cult stuff or even with Lily and what she went through. All of this really kind of helps the viewers to help world-build and feel involved in the story a lot more.

Overall, I give Late Night With the Devil a 7/10 - worth a watch for sure!