Late Night with the Devil: The Show That Killed

As everyone knows, horror films generally don't receive high ratings. It seems there are only a few recurring themes: Asian films focus on folklore and feng shui, Western films emphasize violence and gore; some rely on jump scares, while others depend entirely on background music to create atmosphere. It's been a long time since a horror film with new ideas emerged.

However, recently, one has surfaced, featuring many innovative elements and avoiding the aforementioned clichés. From its debut, it has amazed audiences. We must talk about Late Night with the Devil which has a 97% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Claiming it as the best-received horror film of the year so far is not an exaggeration.

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The directors are the Cairnes brothers (Cameron and Colin Cairnes), who previously made Scare Campaign. This new film, Late Night with the Devil, continues their signature “mockumentary” style.

The story’s beginning has nothing to do with horror. With a square aspect ratio mimicking an old television, coarse chessboard transitions, retro studio decor, and an exaggerated hosting style, if not for the somewhat familiar lead actor, it would seem like a typical opening of a 1970s American late-night show.

Jack (David Dastmalchian), the host of the 1970s TV show "The Night Owl," is dissatisfied with life despite his fame and Emmy nomination. With his contract nearing its end and determined to outdo a rival show, Jack plans a high-stakes Halloween special featuring a live séance.

Jack selects controversial guests: an Indian psychic (Fayssal Bazzi) who claims to communicate with the dead and a magician (Ian Bliss) who debunks superstitions. The psychic’s séance, initially scripted, takes a dark turn when he suddenly seizes, muttering the name "Minnie," - Jack’s late wife.

During the magician's debunking, the psychic collapses, spitting black liquid, causing chaos. Jack cuts to a commercial. The film then shifts from a 4:3 color to a 16:9 black-and-white frame, highlighting the difference between on-air glamor and off-air darkness. Backstage, Jack learns the show's ratings have skyrocketed due to the psychic’s seizure, but the psychic died on route to the hospital. Driven by greed, Jack conceals the death and continues the show.

The next guest, a doctor (Laura Gordon) with her supposedly demon-possessed subject, Lily (Ingrid Torelli), performs a live exorcism. The exorcism boosts ratings, but when the demon addresses Jack, referencing their past, it ties the horror to Jack's own deal with the devil.

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Indeed, there is a larger backdrop hidden within this live broadcast show: a cult and a satanic ritual. The film extensively portrays the 1970s at its beginning, an era when cults were prevalent in America. The Cold War, nuclear threats, economic crises, world revolutions, civil rights movements and sexual liberation deeply impacted people’s values and became fertile ground for cults to emerge. These cults preached that good and evil, as well as salvation, didn’t exist in the world. Desires were openly displayed, and deals with the devil became a means for many to achieve their ambitions. Politicians, celebrities, and industry leaders, for the sake of career advancement, often got involved. And what did they trade? Money, bodies, lifespan, souls, dignity, flesh... even living people.

In the movie, Lily, possessed by a demon, was initially one of the human sacrifices in such a deal. Before she turned ten, she was raised by the cult before being rescued. Outwardly, only Lily survived the cult, but in reality, her body was already occupied by a demon, to which the girl would exhibit strange behaviors. Later, a self-proclaimed supernatural researcher adopted Lily and used her story as material to publish numerous sensational papers.

Jack had a loving wife who never smoked. Yet she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and passed away. A week before her death, she appeared as a guest on Jack’s show, and the couple deeply expressed their love, with eyes full of compassion and reluctance. That episode earned high ratings. But the truth is, in the Halloween special, the demon within Lily reveals the truth: She died. She died an ugly, ugly death. Even after all Jack did, the ratings for “The Night Owl” still lagged behind “The Tonight Show” by one percentage point. What could he do?

Thus, the Halloween ghost-summoning show was conceived. And the series of accidents in this plan were subtly hinted at by the director: fleeting faces in mirrors, a knife blade changing direction. All point towards Jack as the cause of the accidents, and his wrongdoing towards his wife. After Lily is possessed, the producer proudly tells Jack that this is the greatest TV event since the moon landing. But success comes at a price. And this time, the price is everyone present.

Indeed, upon reviewing the possession footage, Jack spots a familiar figure. Frame by frame, he rewinds the tape and sees — his deceased wife. Before he can react, Lily starts convulsing again, her head splitting open… and then begins a killing spree.

How does it end? I won’t spoil it. But the film concludes with a line of text: "Fulfillment of the descent." Whose descent? The devils. So, rather than being a séance led by Jack, it is more of a ritual for the devil’s descent. It orchestrates everything and is summoned.

However, if you think about it — was the devil really summoned? Or, is the devil really frightening? What’s truly terrifying is the unfathomable human hearts that will sacrifice you for their own hidden agendas.

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Have you noticed that the current predicament of formulaic horror films and Jack’s blind pursuit of ratings in "Late Night with the Devil" actually reflect the same era phenomenon—entertainment to death? The difference is that in the movie, the protagonist can go to any lengths for ratings, even summoning a demon on live TV. In reality, directors can’t and won’t summon real ghosts to film supernatural scenes. That’s why mockumentaries have become popular.

Since The Blair Witch Project in 1999, many horror films have had characters pick up DV cameras, presenting ghost stories from the audience’s first-person perspective, enhancing the film’s realism. The more realistic, the more engaging it is, in turn stimulating the audiences’ brains for entertainment. Even in Late Night with the Devil, when Jack manipulates TV footage, the torn frame details give the audience an immersive feeling. Undeniably, whether in the past or now, "entertainment" is the most indispensable and increasingly hard-to-satisfy spiritual product for the public.

Why do we need entertainment to death? Or rather, why is it necessary? Let’s go back to the 1970s. Due to war and energy crises leading to economic stagnation, American society was deeply confused. Unemployment, rising prices, frequent murders... people didn’t know what to believe in anymore. During this time, cults and TV culture infiltrated everyone’s lives. Even the middle class depicted by Ang Lee in The Ice Storm talked about vulgar, bizarre topics under the guise of propriety, even seeking pleasure from incest, wife-swapping, and marijuana. These "sweet traps" made people happy, and feeling satisfied in their emptiness. But then what?

Just like we don’t give high scores to most of today’s horror films, because their content has become increasingly similar, the mental opium that stimulates the brain is gradually losing its effect. Even short-term satisfaction is becoming increasingly fake, until even self-deceived people are too lazy to believe anymore.

What’s more tragic is that, whether in America in the 1970s or now in 2024, we all know this is a helpless self-deception. The medium has just changed. Trashy entertainment invades our brains day after day. But when people return to reality and realize that endless pleasure-seeking might be dangerous, their rational thinking has gradually degraded. After all the twists and turns, it seems like only entertainment is left.