One of the buzziest horror titles of the year, the indie Late night With The Devil does a lot with very little.A lot of this has to do with casting David Dastmalchian in the lead role of Jack. Dastmalchian has spent years popping up in character actor roles, even really bit parts, but with such a recognizable face. he’s developed a recognition for his work, even if the work is small, or brief, and known for having range. Never has he really been asked to play this type of role, or be the lead actor of the film. Absolutely the right decision. Dastmalchian delivers another commendable performance, that will likely be in a lot of critic’s lists at the end of the year.
But the movie? I’ve heard the complaints that the other actors don’t deliver strong performances, like they don’t feel like actors. That would be because they are playing regular people on a supposed Late Night Talk Show. So, yeah, that tracks. My problem is the decision to present this from the beginning as some kind of documentary, that takes this supposed Halloween special that (in the world of this film) aired, and show you some missing footage, and relive what happened. Needless to say, they throw that right out the door.
This never feels like a documentary. From backstage conversations that were oddly filmed for some reason, instead of doing something more challenging like trying to piece together sounds heard while recording something else. Everything is shot like a standard movie, and while the documentary aspect would have been a cool trick, they really lose that thread. by the end, I was left wondering what aired, and what didn’t. They could have had interviews with survivors, audience members, experts, network executives, anyone to make it feel like what they wanted, but they went the normal linear narrative route.
The thing is, if I pretend that I was a little late and missed that documentary set up, I really liked the rest of the film. If they throw that element away, the film does work. It is interesting, unpredictable, and has some nice tricks. And, it does all of this on a relatively low budget, without ever feeling cheap. It’s such an odd choice to frame it the way they did, since they can’t commit to the structure, but the product we do get, there’s something there.
The audio description which was produced by Audio Eyes, with a script by Mika Grossman, and narrated by Rick Boggs, does a pretty decent job of following the horror elements when they do finally show up. Otherwise, I think they could have assisted the original intention of this being a documentary, with some lost footage, in presenting things differently. I’m sure the backstage footage looked different, but the audio description really just captures it like it is any other moment. Luckily, by this point, I’ve heard so many people and their opinions on the film, anything I thought I might have missed, I’m aware of.
For example, AI generated images in the interstitials. My only question is why? What did they gain from doing it that way, instead of having a production assistant do something shitty on Photoshop? I’m sure you could have gotten the same result from a human, so did you save so much money this made it worth it? AI generators of art pull from other existing artist works. It’s more of an ethical question.
I think I enjoy this movie more than I should, considering it betrays itself, and fails to deliver on the premise it set up for itself. As a “documentary” it doesn’t work, but as a film, I was entertained, and David Dastmalchian delivers one of the best performances of the year so far.
Final Grade: B+