Late Night with the Devil is almost good

September 24, 2024 • 1500 words (6 min)

Content warning: mentions of suicide, including the mass suicide of a cult

Late Night with the Devil was a highly anticipated movie, with a seemingly winning combination of good early reviews, a well-liked actor, and a unique concept and aesthetic. However, as the days ticked down to its release, that goodwill was soured when we learned the filmmakers had used AI "art" for interstitials in the movie's 70s talk show structure. Some people boycotted the film in theaters, while others argued that it wasn't a big deal: it had been in production before the AI panic started in 2023, and the "art" was only used in a few short stills (and the background of nearly every shot on the TV show set). However, I think the use of generative AI is indictive of the quality of the movie as a whole. It started out with a great concept, but took shortcuts to the final product, falling back on lazy tropes and turning into an amalgam of other horror movies in its finale. The use of AI shows an unwillingness to spend a little extra time and money in making a good final product and that's reflected in the script, which feels a draft or two away from being great.

Late Night with the Devil is about the satanic panic and the entertainment industry in the 1970s. What does it do with these concepts? Not a whole lot beyond surface-level references. This shallowness can be seen in the (lack of a) character arc for the protagonist, Jack Delroy. His story revolves around the fairly obvious twist that he sacrificed his wife in exchange for the renewed success of his talk show, Night Owls. This is set up in the opening montage and referenced throughout the movie, but it doesn't do much for Jack's character—he doesn't develop or change, mentioning his wife's death makes him uncomfortable but doesn't have any significant emotional impact on him, and it's even a little unclear whether or not he knew he was sacrificing his wife. The movie is more focused on its generic "little girl possessed by the devil" plot to focus on doing anything interesting with Jack. (I will admit, the character of Lilly is played excellently, which unnerving details like her staring down the camera and appearing older than she acts, but the script doesn't do much to distinguish her story from a thousand other Exorcist copycats.) In my opinion, there were two directions the script could have gone with Jack's character. The first is to make him far more unlikable. His potential darkness—the obsession with success and hollowing-out of his humanity that would lead him to his current position—are shaved down to create an amiable protagonist. His only questionable decision (other than killing his wife) is pressuring Lilly's caretaker into continuing the show even though it's causing Lilly distress, which she obliges because it's implied they have a romantic relationship. The film could have done so much more with the power Jack wields over the studio and his desire for a show at the expense of others. He's not the one gaslighting his assistant into doing things that make him uncomfortable, but his manager, who's a nothing character just there to be a villain so Jack doesn't have to be. Jack can't be self-absorbed and utterly success-driven, because he's the protagonist and we're supposed to sympathize with him, even though this characterization would make the themes of the movie much stronger. The death of his wife just makes him real sad, even though he's the one who joined an elite Hollywood club and made a deal with the devil for her death. The other direction his character could have gone was to have been haunted by his wife's death. Anything that made him a person before has been carved out by his sins, which he's constantly reminded of by being on air (something like Silent Hill 2's James Sunderland, whose flat affect and implied suicidal ideation are a result of his immense guilt over his own wife's death). The contrast between Jack's on and off air personas could have been much stronger, showing the true toll of his bid for success. Unfortunately, the film doesn't reach into any of these intense, complicated emotions that would have not only made Jack a more interesting character, but strengthened the movie's themes.

Before diving into these themes, I want to quickly talk about the format of the movie. Half of it is styled like found footage, the last broadcast of the cursed Night Owls show. This works great to immerse the view in the 1970s, and pulls off some clever characterization in the way characters talk and interact with each other on vs off air. The other half, though, is filmed in a more modern style, showing characters backstage. This stretches the suspension of disbelief, but it's necessary for certain plot beats and character development—at least, it would be if the characters weren't so underexplored. As it stands, the "backstage" scenes feel unnecessary. It would be just as much of a suspension of disbelief for all of these off air scenes to be captured on the television cameras that film the rest of the movie. This also wouldn't break the immersive found footage set-up, which was one of the most interesting parts of the movie's premise. It's like if Paranormal Activity had random sections that were filmed normally, despite the cameras constantly running in the characters' house.

The central theme of Late Night with the Devil is the exploitation of the entertainment industry. The industry has a negative affect on everyone: Jack sacrifices his wife for success, each of the main characters die as a result of being on the show, and the character where this theme should be the most prominent is Lilly, the girl possessed by a demon. The opening montage includes a sensationalized recap of the mass suicide of the cult she grew up in, of which she is the only survivor. Her only caretaker is a sketchy parapsychologist who brought her onto a TV show to exploit her trauma by communicating with the demon inside of her. This is an excellent set-up for a critique of the satanic panic and the treatment of cult survivors. Will the movie take advantage of it? Of course not. The demon isn't a symbol of Lilly's trauma and exploitation, it's not something invented by the public to confirm their own biases—it's real, and it kills everybody. There's no deep dive into Lilly's psyche and the effects of both her upbringing and her exploitation afterwards—she's a generic creepy girl with no thoughts of her own. Everything the movie had going for it crumbles as it goes on, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the finale.

My main issue with Late Night with the Devil, and where I think it all falls apart, is the ending. Up to this point, the film had been building a unique aesthetic and atmosphere, as well as the potential for a fantastic exploration of the satanic panic and exploitation in the entertainment industry. It also had a stand-out sequence of practical effects with the worm scene, which also introduced the idea that what you see isn't necessarily the truth (a concept that, like many others, doesn't pay off; I'm curious if the earlier drafts were any better). And then the finale comes. It feels like it could have been ripped from any other horror movie. I usually try to be kind to special effects in low-budget movies, but after the amazing practical effects earlier, the CGI in the finale just looks terrible, and it isn't cohesive with the art style of the rest of the film. All of the remaining characters are killed off, and then there's a sequence where Jack relives sections of his show, eventually begging the audience to stop watching. This culminates in him unwittingly killing. This final sequence is much more interesting than the CGI before it, and it would be enough to wrap things up if it didn't drop all of the interesting themes the movie had been building. Lilly's death is a good narrative beat and it works really well that Jack is the one to kill her; she's another person who dies in his pursuit of success, but this time it's by his own hands. However, as I've already said, the movie doesn't dig deep enough into Jack or Lilly's characters for this beat to be truly effective. The finale feels like a tacked-on, last minute note that forces what could have been a unique film into the mold of every other horror movie. It's not willing to take risks and go against the grain to explore its themes. Ultimately, this leaves Late Night with the Devil as more of a disappointment than if it had just been another bad horror movie.