Mark Kermode reviews Late Night with the Devil - Kermode and Mayo's Take

late night with the devil that's what I'm interested in yes a great uh title so this is a 2023 ghostwatch sort of influenced uh found footage influenced uh Australian horror satire written and directed uh by Cameron and Colin Ken this was theatrically released by shoda who you'll know if you're a horror fan so story of a a struggling late night 70s TV host who hopes to revive his career with a with a spooky Halloween special he's called Jack Delroy and played by um David uh dasmal um who wrote an article for fangor magazine for whom I used to write apparently about uh Regional TV horror hosts and he gets the role of this this guy who's kind of a little bit Allan Partridge um so this is presented as kind of the master tapes of this special that went out and ended in tragedy although you don't know at the beginning what the tragedy is you start it starts with a kind of good thumbnail sketch of his career his rise to fame the fact that his ratings are good but he never manages to outdo Johnny Carson's his wife and then the loss of his wife to cancer his return to TV after that his desperate desire for Ratings there is also some hinting about a backstory about him being involved with a masonic cult that meet in the woods where people dress like owls but everyone says no it's just a lodge it's just a place that people go to kind of hang out um his show is called night owls with Jack Delroy the episode that we get get to see is from the sixth season broadcast on Halloween 1977 and his his guests which at the very beginning is a thing with the announcer and the announcer because it's a spooky thing has got a theramin I tell you this because it'll turn up in the clip it's important um so the guests include a parapsychologist who's written a book called conversations with the devil in which she has uh done a case study on a young teenager who was the sole survivor of a satanic Church's mass suicide the teenager who apparently has a demon inside her is also on the show The Stage is set for spookiness here's a clip now Lily I understand that you have a name for this thing that lives inside of you mhm I call him Mr wles and why do you call him that he kind of wriggles his way inside my head and then he wles his way out but with jun's help you are able to control him June says that everyone has a demon inside them but we can always control them can [Music] we yes time I got it Jack so the theramin starts playing itself and making ooky spooky noises and everyone's a little bit confused also on the show if a theramin starts playing itself probably stop the show yeah and actually during the course of the broadcast a number of members of the crew go I I don't want to be doing this anymore so they've also got a mind reader who does his wo magic mind reading at the beginning and it's all a bit shunky and they've got an Illusionist who's now dedicated his life to debunking Paras science and then between the broadcast as it was originally recorded you get these black and white interstitials of behind the scenes when they cut to commercial breaks so the film played at South by Southwest I knew about it because Alan Jones you know who runs frightfest said to me it's it's a really interesting film Stephen King saw it and said it was absolutely brilliant I couldn't take my eyes off it your results May Vary as they say but I urge you to catch it when you can so went in with sort of you know good expectations the best thing about it at the beginning is the design of the 70s TV show is absolutely right you know what those 70s TV shows used to look like you saw that that clip there it's it's very looked very good absolutely perfect and the way in which the TV host is a little bit oleaginous a little little bit creepy you know the nice use of the word we haven't had that for a while welcome back thank you very much and you know at time and then they've got the house band who the house band having been in a house band in a late night TV show the house band not in the 70s the house band are really really convincing and then it sort of becomes you know Alan Partridge Goes to Hell and it Taps into the fact a lot of those 70s particularly after The Exorcist came out there was a lot of late night 7s TV shows in America that did you know did stuff about exorcisms and demonism and I know this cuz I was I saw a lot of them when I was researching my books and documentaries about The Exorcist and there are some nods to the exist the fact that she calls him Mr wriggles is a kind of it's like a kind of Captain howy nod there's also a little bit of prano Bailey Bond sensor in terms of that what does that mean well the the Retro horror the kind of there's something really appealing about the feel of horror from a previous age that you kind of remember and they get the atmosphere and the texture of it just right but the best thing is it builds really well it starts off as just like a slightly shunky TV show and then things start to go wrong and then then we're moving towards the interview with the girl who may or may not have a demon in there of course she doesn't because you know that's or does she and then or does she well I can't you know watch the TV show all we know is it's like that I was reminded of that thing in nope you remember because nope uh begins with the the show that's gone gone terribly wrong but it builds and it builds and then when it needs to go completely Bonkers it's not afraid to do so so the thing I really liked about it was it's you know it's a it's it's a single location it's a simple idea it's an idea that we have seen before in in in other films but it's done very well and at the center of it the character of this I'll say it again o ain's TV host who is absolutely spoton I mean I do think Steve kougan would go well done that is a very good creepy TV host and it's got a couple of got a couple of nice scares in it really enjoyable late night with the Devil kind of 15 territory yeah I think so yeah it must be 15 in the new bbfc or the old bbfc the new BB meet the new BF bbfc same as the old bbfc okay very good late night with the Devil

Channel: Kermode and Mayo's Take

Views: 142,300

Keywords: Mark Kermode, Simon Mayo, Kermode and Mayo's Take, Film Review, TV Review

Id: JRwSsNgZW2g

Length: 6min 18sec (378 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 22 2024