Late Night with the Devil (2024)

Late Night with the Devil finds itself playing with some of horror's favorite toys: found footage, the occult, and a crowd full of willing victims. Unfortunately, the film is a child with no imagination, creating nonsense from sense.

The coherent plot does exist, though it may have been written dyslexically: Jack strikes a deal with the devil in order to become #1 in talk-show television. However, it comes at a steep cost and he is not granted his wish in the way he anticipates. These are fairly standard horror building blocks.

Through an impressive display of disparate delivery, the sensible story above is presented with disordered translucency. Additionally, the effective premise of a horror movie told through a talk show is mostly disrupted by needless inclusions and non-credible depictions of horrific moments.

A key misfire of a horrific moment is the hypnosis scene. It acts as a misdirect, reassuring the viewer that everything on display can be achieved through trickery. But the hypnosis is dispensed by a skeptic, yet we are to believe he puts the entire audience under a shared visual hallucination? With a watch? Precedent for hypnosis is not the problem; the presentation of it is. His act is meant to contrast with the supernatural phenomena on display; instead he commits a supernatural act himself and calls it mundane.

The film's biggest problem is that it is in possession of a story that lives at the precipice, always. The movie constantly left the reviewer wondering when the film would stop meandering and get down to business. Not all of the building blocks of this story are bad; but some would have been better omitted as they acted more as roadblocks.

The film engages in another age-old horror tradition: low-budget. This is apparent in some particularly hilarious effects moments, such as Minnie's "solemn" ghost and electric Lilly who mostly looked electric silly.

Late Night with the Devil had all the pieces necessary to succeed as a low-budget film. Unfortunately, it chose to throw them all into a blender and hit "liquefy". Adventurous horror viewers may find something they enjoy, but Late Night with the Devil won't be looking at high ratings any time soon.