I agree with Paul Schrader’s assessment of Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes’ “Late Night With the Devil.” It works well as this menacing pastiche, but can’t quite stick the landing. That’s alright, taking place in a single location, with a budget rumored to be less than $2 million, the creative juices run freely in this film.
Released on Friday, “Late Night With the Devil” has already made back its budget, grossing an impressive $2.8 million on its first weekend in theaters.
The film, presented as “found footage” horror, tackles an unexplained event that occurred on October 31, 1977 during the live broadcast of the sixth season's episode of 'Night Owls with Jack Delroy, a successful late night talk show. Delroy is played by here, in effective fashion, by character actor David Dastmalchian.
Delroy's wife, Madeleine, passed away and her death had a major effect on him, halting production on the show for a few months. When Delroy does return, the show isn’t met with high ratings. The October 31st broadcast, a Halloween special dealing with the occult is seen by the show’s producers as a last ditch effort to gain back the eyes and ears of America.
The special guests on that night were psychic Christou, occult skeptic Carmichael, parapsychologist author June Ross-Mitchell, and June's subject Lilly. No fair revealing more. The film is a smartly conceived lo-fi spookfest that grabs your attention from the get-go and doesn’t let go.
Wait until you see Christou’s grotesquely horrific freakout, Carmichael’s hypnotist demonstration and the attempted seance to bring out the demonic presence that has a firm grasp on Lilly. The Cairnes’ usage of lighting — at some point the electricity in the room goes haywire — is damn-near spooky. Ditto the period details — from the ‘70s wardrobe to the set details — the filmmakers really make you feel as if you’ve been transported to 1977.
Dastmalchian, best known for the side characters he’s played in films such as “Prisoners,” “The Dark Knight” and “Oppenheimer,” nails his wounded Jack. Dastmalchian proves himself as the most unassuming of lead actors.
The result is fun, creepy, menacing and familiar, all at once. All throughout this film, you sense impending doom slowly creeping into the frames, but you’re never really sure how it will manifest itself. Call “Late Night With the Devil” a throwback, of sorts, a film filled with shtick that knows what it is, never pretends to be something else and, somehow, manages to make an impression of you, despite its botched ending. [B]
The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.