A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.

Talk about a film surrounded by so much hype, I honestly can’t remember the last Horror film to come out with so much hoopla.

I was first introduced to writing and directing pair, The Cairnes Brothers, all the way back in 2012 with the comedy Horror “100 Bloody Acres”. I thought it showed potential and made a note to keep an eye out for any future projects, and I’m glad I did.

First of all let me praise the cast in this feature, every single one of them is phenomenol. There isn’t one weak performance here and it seems like they all managed to get the best out of each other. The cast manage to draw you in so effortlessly, not an easy thing to do.

This is helped with what I consider to be an amazing scriptm matched with equally amazing camera work and directing. Everything in this feature just seems click right into place, as a viewer there’s really nothing more you could wish for here.

Films that are played out in real time can admittedly be hit and miss, this one is an exception. There is a clear concept, they stick with it and it ultimately pays off. There’s also some great subtleties that I’m sure will require more viewing, which I’ll certainly be doing.

“Late Night With The Devil” is a pretty unique film and well worth the hype that has surrounded it, not something I would usually say.

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If you want to see the “Late Night With The Devil” trailer then just click on the video below:

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Miscellaneous facts about the film:

The Carmichael character is very clearly based (including physically) on the real-life James Randi. Randi was a talented magician who became a famous psychic debunker and he started an institute that offered a large reward to anyone that could reproduce their supposed paranormal powers in controlled conditions. Over decades, nobody was able to win the money.

Actor David Dastmalchian was cast in the lead role and film’s central character Jack Delroy after the film’s directors read an article by him about regional horror TV hosts, which he had written for ‘Fangoria’ magazine. Co-director Colin Cairnes said in an interview with the film’s two directors published in this magazine: ”Well, I mean other than sure just recognizing his awesome work and all the films he’s been in. But then I opened up ‘Fango’ one day and read an article by David on regional horror hosts. And reading that, and knowing his work, I just thought, ‘this is going to be a really good fit.’ Obviously, our hero Jack is a TV host, so it felt like there would be some affinity there.”

The name of the mysterious men-only club situated in the Californian redwoods was ”The Grove.” It was inspired by the real-life Bohemian Grove located at 20601 Bohemian Avenue in Monte Rio, California. The Bohemian Grove’s membership boasts several politicians (including three presidents of the United States), industrialists, and other noted figures. One of the real Grove’s founders was Ambrose Bierce, author of several horror stories and the cynical Devil’s Dictionary. The Grove’s rituals, which have been described as falling between occult and kitsch, include frequent images of owls.

In a 2024 interview with The Moveable Fest, Colin Cairnes explained the reason the film is set in 1977: “The film had to happen on a Monday night for Sweeps Week, so the stakes are high and this is the beginning of the week that’s gonna make or break Jack Delroy’s career, right? And it just so happened that 1977 was the only year in the ’70s where Halloween fell on a Monday night, so we thought ”77, that’s pretty much, you’re right in the thick of it.’ So that worked for us.”

This horror movie’s filmmakers ”The Cairnes Brothers” – Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes – have said of this picture in an official statement: “In the ’70s and ’80s there was something slightly dangerous about late-night TV. Talk shows in particular were a window into some strange adult world. We thought combining that charged, live-to-air atmosphere with the supernatural could make for a uniquely frightening film experience.”

The amount of time that the opening black and white sequence runs for is about eight minutes. It was inspired by the 1980s shockumentary documentary The Killing of America (1981). The later sequences in B&W in the movie are the on-set and off-air interludes during commercial breaks.

Famed horror novelist Stephen King has praised the movie. He said: “I got a screener. It’s absolutely brilliant. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Your results may vary, as they say, but I urge you to watch it when you can.”

Cult leader Szandor D’Abo appears to be based on Church Of Satan founder Anton Szandor LaVey.

In a 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron Cairnes gave details on the production schedule, shooting process, and design of the film: “We had 20 days in a studio, essentially one location on what was basically a 360-degree set. We shot the film like it was a TV show with three cameras running the whole time. There was the temptation there to shoot on all old vintage tube cameras, but just with the effects, demands, and everything we ended up shooting digitally, but we shot using three cameras running all the time. For the set design, the inspiration was a lot of those game shows and talk shows from that period, but we were fortunate enough to have a production designer who worked in that era on local TV here, including a very popular music program called Countdown (1974). It was all too easy for him I think to come up with that design. And that palette of browns and oranges and beige. It all felt very of the time, and we really embraced that.”

The actual specific episodes of The Don Lane Show (1975) that inspired this horror movie were those that featured Uri Geller and Doris Stokes.

The movie’s late-night talk show was inspired by The Don Lane Show (1975). The Australian newspaper ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ reported on 2nd June 2023 that the picture ”…takes its inspiration from the American-born Don Lane and his eponymous late-night Australian talk show The Don Lane Show (1975).”

Christou’s stage name resembles two real life psychics/mentalists. Criswell (Charles Criswell King) was most famous for his outlandish (and mostly inaccurate) predictions, while The Amazing Kreskin (George Joseph Kresge) has been performing mentalist acts for over 50 years. Both made several appearances on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. As well, Christou’s look bears a passing resemblance to Reveen, an Australian hypnotist who was popular in the 1970s.

In addition to James Randi, Carmichael Haig resembles Orson Welles (or rather how Welles looked around the time he was a gadfly on late night talk shows). In addition to being an actor and director, Welles was a skilled stage magician. In a 1970 interview with David Frost, Welles told a story about his brief time as a psychic, explaining in detail how cold reading works. However, Welles reported that he gave up the psychic act when he did a reading on a woman and found that his “reading” was eerily accurate. Welles dismissed his own psychic abilities, but theorized that professional psychics can fool themselves into believing in their own powers.

Though set in New York City, the film was shot at the Dockland Studios in Melbourne, Australia.

Traditional folklore states that if a person makes a contract with the Devil for earthly goods, the Devil comes to claim his payment in seven years. The “documentary footage” at the start of the film shows Delroy at the Grove in 1969. His wife dies in 1976 – seven years later.

Debut theatrical feature film of actress Ingrid Torelli, who portrayed satanic cult survivor Lilly D’Abo.

The movie made $666,666 on Sunday March 24, 2024 at the box office, according to the distributor. In all likelihood it wasn’t a coincidence, as box office figures can be manipulated by around 5% by the distributor to compensate for receipts not tracked by Rentrak.

The demon Mr. Wriggles is “a neat nod to The Exorcist (1973)’s Captain Howdy” according to Nikki Baughan at the ‘Screen Daily’ website.

The movie, which takes place on Halloween, had two film festival screenings held on Halloween 2023: India’s Mumbai Film Festival and the Brisbane International Film Festival in Australia.

Originally greenlit as a production for “Fangoria Presents” in 2020 by creative executive Preston Fassel as a prospective feature for the company following the COVID-19 quarantine. Shortly after Fassel’s nod, the company was sold due to controversy involving production executives as detailed in a Daily Beast article. In the years following Fangoria’s sale, Fassel continued to champion the script, including naming it in an article about the best unproduced screenplays he had ever read. Ironically, it was an article by David Dastmalchian published in the resurrected Fangoria that led to the film’s production.

Third theatrical feature film written and directed by Australian horror movie filmmakers ”The Cairnes Brothers” – Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes. Their first two pictures were Scare Campaign (2016) and 100 Bloody Acres (2012).

Ian Bliss who played Carmichael Haig was originally hired to play another character after he was originally hired to be a cast reader. Bliss had just four days to prepare for the role of Haig as the original actor withdrew at the last minute.

When Dr. June Ross-Mitchell is trying to exorcise the demon Abraxas out of Lilly, she orders “vade retro Satana”. It’s a quote from Latin used in exorcisms, meaning “get behind me, Satan” as exhortation to keep him to be gone.

The cutaways and “we’ll be right back” network messages were made with AI.

The logo for the “UBC” network closely resembles that of ABC (The American Broadcasting Company). Australia’s national television network is also known as ABC, but has a very different logo.

The footage of a SWAT team in action (~37:00) is actual footage of the LAPD’s attempt to serve warrants at 1466 East 54th Street on personnel of the “Symbionese Liberation Army” (SLA), Sunday May 19, 1974, which ended in a Branch-Davidian-Style self-immolation; the SLA was the group that kidnapped and “brain-washed” Hearst heir, Patty Hearst, into joining them during several armed bank robberies (she was eventually convicted, served time, and then was pardoned after release by U.S. President Jimmy Carter).

At 46:30 Lilly mentions Abracadabra, who is also a character played by David Dastmalchian in the TV series “The Flash”, spelled “Abra Kadabra”

The name of the American late-night tonight show staged in New York City was ”Night Owls” aka ”Night Owls with Jack Delroy’.’

Carmichael Haig’s agency is called IFSIP, short for International Federation of Scientific Investigation into the Paranormal.

The basis of the movie plot comes from Ghostwatch (1992), a mockumentary produced by BBC1 where the fictional eponymous TV show makes a Halloween special investigating a poltergeist phenomenon in a family house. As the show goes, supernatural events start to happen and they turn out-of-control.