Late Night with the Devil (2023) – Film Review

Director: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes
Cast: David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss
Certificate: 15
By Sarah Morgan
Melbourne, Australia. It’s the sun-kissed home of Ramsay Street, where good neighbours can become good friends.
It also appears to be a hotbed of inventive low-budget horror movie-making, if Late Night with the Devil is anything to go by.
The film, originally released in 2023, is the brainchild of Australian writer-director sibling team Colin and Cameron Cairnes who, with their most recent offering, have managed to do something I thought was impossible – breathe new life into found footage movies.
The sub-genre is rather well-worn, but the lucrative returns for the likes of The Blair Witch Project and the Paranormal Activity franchise have meant that many wannabe auteurs across the world have dipped their toes into it, usually with rather derivative and dull results.
“Hugely entertaining”
However, while Late Night with the Devil is without doubt a found footage film, it actually has just as much in common with the seminal BBC mockumentary Ghostwatch and horror movies about cults as it does anything else, while stylistically it resembles productions made in the late-1970s, early-1980s, including Martin Scorsese’s King of Comedy, which was, incidentally, also one of the inspirations for Todd Phillips’ Joker.
Although filmed in Melbourne, the story takes place on the American soundstage of a chat show whose host, Jack Delroy, is desperate to overhaul Johnny Carson’s viewing figures, so much so, he’s willing to go to extreme lengths to attract an audience, hiring controversial guests and setting them up to make mayhem in the studio.
So, on Halloween in 1977, he creates a spooky spectacular like no other. Jack invites parapsychologist June, her teenage allegedly possessed muse Lily, psychic Christou and loud-mouthed sceptic Haig onto the show. But what begins as a lively and, at times, slightly tongue-in-cheek debate, soon turns into the episode from – literally – hell.
To say much more would be to potentially ruin your enjoyment of a hugely entertaining film. Let’s just say that nobody is going to come out of the situation well…
“Genuinely surprising”
The film is presented as the long-lost complete videotapes of what happened that night, including off-camera moments during ad breaks, and although I wouldn’t necessarily say that I was terrified throughout, I couldn’t help but admire the attention to period detail and storytelling.
The cast, led by US actor David Dastmalchian, but mostly made up of Aussie performers (and narrated by Michael Ironside, no less) is excellent. Extra plaudits go to improvisational comedian Rhys Auteri, who is rather brilliant as Jack’s sidekick Gus; he becomes the film’s heart and soul. This was Auteri’s debut film; I hope he goes on to do much more.
In the past I’ve found that such movies can be let down by a weak ending but, just as I feared they were losing their way, the Cairnes brothers pull things back from the edge to deliver something genuinely surprising.
And if you want to find out how they did it, there’s an extensive interview with them among the special features, which also include an excellent history of films about cults from critic Zoe Rose Smith.
Special Features
- UHD presented in HDR with Dolby Vision
- New audio commentary by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson
- Bringing Their 'A' Game: an interview with directors Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes
- Mind if I Smoke?: An interview with actor Ian Bliss
- We're Gonna Make a Horror Movie: an interview with actor Ingrid Torelli
- Extremely Lucky: An interview with actor Rhys Auteri
- Cult Hits: Zoë Rose Smith on Late Night with The Devil
- Behind the Scenes
- The Making of The Night Owl music
- South by Southwest 2023 Q&A with David Dastmalchian, Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes
Limited Edition Contents
- Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Haley Turnbull
- 120-page book with behind-the-scenes images and new essays by Kat Hughes, James Rose, Rebecca Sayce, Graham Skipper, Julieann Stipidis and Emma Westwood
- Six collectors' art cards
Late Night With The Devil is released on Limited Edition 4K UHD/Blu-ray by Second Sight