I was quite disappointed with Late Night with the Devil. I had ramped up my expectations that it was going to be a much different film than it was and as it played out I realized it wasn't doing what I had hoped and wanted it to do. But not only that it was doing things I don't like from a film. I tried to adjust and just consider it based on what it was doing. But even that left me disappointed. This is what high expectations can do when confronted with a rather average film, a film that otherwise you might enjoy if you hadn't built it up so much before seeing it.
I'll start with what's good. The production design is excellent and the film's retro-cool feeling is effective. Dastmalchian is, as pretty much always, quite good, and I especially appreciated that he was playing against type. Here he isn't the outsider weirdo that we're used to him playing and he pulls off a rather complicated character very well. The world of the fictional TV show Night Owls felt very real.
But unfortunately for me too much didn't work. The found footage genre quite often fails in actually living up to its premise. Most of the time the film's story requires there be "footage" that just has no real world explanation for how it exists or was filmed. Late Night with the Devil really drops this ball. They explain it away in world as "behind the scene footage" but what we see that isn't the actual TV show is filmed as someone (who?? not even an attempt to explain that) is walking around with a hand held camera filming what most of the time the subjects would want to be private conversations, clearly aware of a camera but not caring that their secrets are being recorded??? This could have been handled by using "security camera" style footage which would have felt real but maybe wouldn't have been as cinematic. Still this quickly took me out of the story and ruined the realness feeling this story needs to really pull it off.
Also the script lets us down. The premise is a good one but the actual dialogue often doesn't feel realistic. I often felt that the characters just wouldn't say what they were scripted to say. Certain scenes felt crafted to explain plot points. It all just felt a little amateurish. It's too bad too because the overall arc is quite interesting and if it had been executed effectively I think it really could have been incredible.
Finally, and this is an essential piece of any horror, the film just isn't scary. The possession scenes are filled with typical tropes, the performance of many of the actors involved aren't up to the main star's level and feel hammy. So when the film finally gets to its meaty scenes (which takes quite a while for a film that is rather short overall) they disappoint. The film makes the mistake of showing too much and not leaving enough to the imagination. What they show just isn't that horrifying and they reveal it all leaving little to no mystery.
So overall Late Night with the Devil is rather average. It's not bad and its worth a watch, but it's not amazing, it's not that innovative. Don't expect much and you'll likely be able to enjoy it for what it is.
Late Night With the Devil
Starring: David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli
Writers/Directors: Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes
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