Ryan S Rogers

In a general sense, I loved the vibe of this movie. It felt like a movie that should be premiering on Shudder, and I mean that in the best way. The aesthetic of the low budget horror movie with a diegetic camera will always get me to give something a second look. For the most part, the idea of this being footage taken of that night is sold very well. There are a few exceptions in the form of the between segments backstage shots that just feel like they were too professionally shot, and made specifically for a movie. The 'on air' segments really do a good job making up for it though.

The downside of the to the 'high end of low' budget aesthetic is some of the effects felt very out of place, especially the lightning. It looked way too cheaply done to even be charming, and probably shouldn't have been attempted under the constraints.

Also, I don't like the use of AI for the film. Just in general, I dislike the idea of generative AI used to create things for media. Even a low budget movie could have paid an actual artist to make the few interstitial cards that were AI generated. All together a little baffling, to be honest.

Dastmalchian does a good job at portraying this late night host that really needs a win. In a lot of movies like these, it can be easy to nitpick and ask questions like "How could anyone let all this keep going?" but Dastmalchian really provides the answer with his performance.

Most of the cast does a fantastic job. The only one that I felt a little less keen on was Laura Gordon's character of the Doctor. Her performance felt a little weak and out of place amongst everything else. I could also see people not liking the skeptic character either, but I felt his over-the-top-ness was fun.

Pacing was a little weird for me. I know that it's meant to be a slow burn build up, but I felt that some things were coming on way too slow, while the final five minutes seemed to happen way too fast. The ending felt very rushed in a way that doesn't seem entirely intentional, and doesn't really land for me.

All in all, Late Night with the Devil is certainly not a masterpiece, but I had a lot of fun with it, and was pleasantly surprised.