Title: Late Night with the Devil

Wouldn't That Just Be Chevy Chase's Talk Show? Hey, who's the comedy-attempting writer here, anyway?

Brief Plot Synopsis: Satanic panic leads to galvanic antics.

Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 4 "ancient Chinese secrets" out of 5.
Tagline: "The live television event that shocked a nation!"

Better Tagline: More disturbing than an Ed Ames tomahawk!

Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: It's been a rocky road for late night host Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian). His show Night Owls is a success, but has never topped Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in the ratings. Returning after a hiatus brought on by the sudden death of his wife Madeleine (Georgina Haig), Delroy decides to go all-out on an occult-themed Halloween episode. It will feature the medium "Christou" (Fayssal Bazzi), magician-turned-skeptic Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), and Lilly D'Abo (Ingrid Torelli), the sole survivor of a cult mass suicide who may have a special guest of her own tagging along.
"Critical" Analysis: Even in the relatively controlled TV environment of the pre-streaming era, weirdness could be found. On late night TV especially there was an occasional anarchy to programs like The Tonight Show, but also The Tomorrow Show, where Tom Snyder not only interviewed John Lennon, but also hosted shows about the Bermuda Triangle and witchcraft. The Dick Cavett Show had an inordinate amount of backstage fights, and the debauchery behind the early years of Saturday Night Live have been well documented.

With that in mind, Late Night for the Devil is a startlingly faithful rendition of the era's aesthetic. Writer/director brothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes resurrect everything from the cheesy banter to the "More To Come" style interstitial graphics. A fitting framework for an episode leaning hard on the era's supernatural fascination.

For just as the GenX-er can recall disproportionate worry about the Bermuda Triangle and killer bees, so can our older cohort recall the surge in possession stories in a post-Exorcist world.

The Cairnes boys couch Delroy's comeback story wholly within the "can one truly have it all?" question poised at the movie's outset. Early on, we see he had a successful TV hosting career and a doting wife. Our narrator (an appreciably stentorian Michael Ironside) at least partially attributes this success to Delroy's membership in The Grove

The Grove, established in the 1800s, is a secret-ish society of old white guys purported to conduct secret rituals. Said rituals are (initially) portrayed laughably enough to recall the Stonecutters, only with dumber outfits.

But it turns out they can only help so much. Madeleine dies unexpectedly of lung cancer, and even her final heartbreaking appearance on the show — the highest rated episode of Night Owls history — still isn't enough for Jack to beat Carson.

Late Night is a found footage film, based on the reliable "lost master tape" gimmick, so keep that in mind. The movie is presented documentary fashion, which lets the Cairnes siblings introduce potentially messy background as documented reality.
With each successive guest, followed by behind the scenes action during commercial breaks, we learn more about Delroy's past, the Grove itself, and his history with Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon), a parapsychologist who's written a book about Lilly.

Bliss is clearly having a grand time playing the snide Haig, offering a $100,000 reward to anyone providing incontrovertible proof of the paranormal while debunking all manner of spooky phenomena ... until he can't, as Delroy's big Sweeps Week* gambit implodes in spectacularly terrifying fashion

But Dastmalchian knocks it out of the park. He rarely gets a chance to spread his wings as the lead and is engaging, sympathetic, and ultimately almost pitiable.

However, after watching what feels like the thousandth movie to feature someone (allegedly) possessed by an evil spirit, I have just one question. Did the malefic forces ever consider that possession might be more effective if they didn't afflict the subject with split skin, pronounced veins, and scary eyeballs every time? Why arouse suspicion? And if possession actually looks pleasant, maybe a demon's job would be easier.

Late Night with the Devil is in theaters today.