Late Night with the Devil

A 1977 Halloween talk show broadcast, live, going wrong, and David Dastmalchian finally gets a lead.

Jack Delroy hosts a late-night show that has never beaten Carson. On Halloween he books a parapsychologist, a sceptic, and a girl who is the sole survivor of a satanic church.

The conceit is a recovered master tape, so the film alternates between broadcast footage and black-and-white behind-the-scenes during the commercial breaks, which is a smart way of having the found-footage frame and still getting coverage.

Dastmalchian plays Jack as a man whose ambition is visible under every smile, and the film is really about what he has already traded.

The period detail is excellent and the studio audience is used properly.

It uses a small number of AI-generated interstitials, which caused a genuine controversy on release and the film-makers have acknowledged it.