Watched in: Theaters
What’s it about? Taking place on the Halloween 1977, the story follows a late night talk show attempting to boost its rating by having an allegedly possessed girl show up. This simple horror flick had more effort in this than what was expected for its genre. The found footage romp takes its familiar cliches and uses them in a way to keeps the audience guessing about what will happen next. A strength going in the story’s favor is uncertainty about what unfolds during the events. It’s not really much of a scary film but it’s more of an atmospheric one that’s focused on building up to things going wrong. Even the production value of its primary setting is nice to look at.
There are a few issues that are holding this surprisingly solid horror from being a perfect one. There isn’t anything special that helps this found footage feature standout among its genre. The momentum that builds throughout that kinda looses steam in the third act where things go wrong. Aside from the main host, the other characters themselves aren’t that interesting.
How are the actors? The actors to focus on are David Dastmalchian and Ingrid Torelli. David is the MVP of the cast as he gives an impress performance that conveys the greed that can lead to downfalls for those around him. Ingrid is mainly worth mentioning for being great at doing all the mannerisms required of her important role. Honorable Mentions go to Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, and Fayssal Bazzi for standing out among the supporting cast.
Overall Consensus: Late Night with the Devil is a surprisingly good found footage that’s strengthened by solid acting, intriguing yet familiar narrative, and great production value. Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes R
Reasons to watch it: You like any of the aforementioned actors and/or filmmaker Cameron and Colin Cairnes. You don’t mind how predictable horror narratives get. You want to take a break from mainstream blockbusters.
Reasons to avoid it: You dislike any of the aforementioned actors and/or filmmaker Cameron and Colin Cairnes. You don’t care about horror or found footage formats. You prefer mainstream blockbusters.
Screening Spectacles 