After you get back home, and you tuck your kids to bed, we search for some easy entertainment in the late-night talk show. Quips about today’s news and intimate conversations with guests are just the thing to wind down, but theoretically, anything can happen at late night. Late Night with the Devil plays as a pseudo-documentary centered on late show host Jack Delroy on a Halloween night, pairing the charged, uncensored atmosphere with a supernatural twist. The film alternates between the color-toned show and black-and-white behind the scenes, and as Delroy tries to lead the show to safe entertainment, with David Dastmalchian’s genial aura, things don’t go as planned as Lily becomes host to a scary demon with Ingrid Torelli’s terrifying physicality. It’s creepy and slightly comedic, with the classic selling of the soul for fame interrupted with words from their sponsors, and it’s certainly a fun twist to the late night we’re used to seeing.
"As Jack finds his grief & ambition in uneasy alliance, and as pandemonium breaks out live on air, questions are raised as to whether what unfolds is illusion, reality, collective mesmerism, corporate control or a personal breakdown viewed from the inside."
— Anton Bitel
"The cast makes Late Night With the Devil more than watchable, but they also raise our hopes for something better."
— Bilge Ebiri
A live broadcast of a late-night talk show in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation's living rooms.
As the host of the Night Owls, Jack Delroy aims to be king of late-night talk shows, but he can’t seem to overtake the ever popular Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. After the death of his beloved wife, Jack holds a Halloween special to bring back ratings– unaware of the evil he is about to unleash into America's living rooms.
A few AI-generated stills previewed in Late Night with the Devil overshadowed the conversation of the film online. Maybe, instead of a demon unleashed on our screens, perhaps we’ll remember this as the moment AI was unleashed in the theater.
Maybe the real demon is AI generated images…
