“Late Night with the Devil” is an Unintended Cry For Help

The film’s use of generative AI undermines its integrity and its thesis

Late Night with the Devil is built upon a promising foundation, exploring the eerie and cynical wasteland of network television through the illusion of a live midnight talk show. The experience is guided by Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian), a washed-up host in desperate pursuit of higher ratings, who has spent his entire career in the shadow of Johnny Carson. Following the sudden loss of his wife and public speculation about his membership in a private club of Hollywood elites, he is determined to revitalize his viewership through a haunting Halloween special. 

Over the course of the evening, Delroy hosts a slew of guests, from psychics to skeptics, in the hopes of generating a paranormal spectacle on live TV. However, the special broadcast devolves into a chaotic debate over the legitimacy of a young girl’s claim that she has been possessed by a demon nicknamed “Mr. Wiggles.” 

The human conflict between skeptics and believers grounds the film and proves to be the only truly compelling part of Late Night with the Devil. While skeptic Carmichael (Ian Bliss) laments the audience’s naivete, he is apparently unaware of the fact that his near-sighted cynicism simply fuels the contrived spectacle. Audiences want to be entertained, and entertainers need the audiences — the integrity and the ethics of the performance are immaterial in contrast to the perception of it. 

Beyond this conflict, Late Night with the Devil is laden with creative blunders. The concept of the found-footage broadcast quickly deteriorates into a kitschy gimmick, ultimately collapsing altogether as the film timidly decides to rely entirely on off-the-air scenes to further character dynamics. The incongruence of the highly-stylized broadcast and the naturalistic off-air interruptions obliterates any sustained suspense. We are no longer the helpless observers of a horrifying live broadcast, and the absence of this framing device transforms Late Night with the Devil into a mediocre B-movie riff. 

Despite the film’s fumbled execution, Late Night with the Devil has garnered its most negative attention for what happens between its scenes. In tune with the style of 1970s late night television, the film features on-theme bumpers to separate commercial breaks from live segments — each of which was created by generative AI. 

In a film supposedly dedicated to condemning the transformation of horrific tragedy into profitable spectacle, the inclusion of AI-generated images undermines the integrity of the filmmakers’ thesis. Late Night with the Devil strives to be a damning portrait of network television as an artless, liminal space focused only on the metrics of success, but the film unintentionally and unironically reflects the entertainment industry’s disinterest in the humanity required to keep itself running. 

OVERALL SCORE: 3/10

Late Night with the Devil was released on March 22, 2024 and is currently streaming on AMC+.