'Late Night With the Devil' review: Satan for sweeps week

The found footage genre gets a clever update in "Late Night With the Devil," writing and directing duo Cameron and Colin Cairnes' grimly stylish horror entry that presents itself as a lost episode of a 1970s talk show.

David Dastmalchian is perfectly cast as Jack Delroy, a fictional '70s late night host whose "Night Owls" is a perennial also-ran to Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show." Delroy is desperate to get over that ratings hump but he's on the downslide of his career by his show's sixth season when, on Halloween night 1977, he invites a guest panel that includes a psychic, a skeptic and a parapsychologist who is said to have communicated with ol' Beelzebub himself.

After an eight-minute scene setter, which lays out Delroy's career, the death of his wife and his mysterious connection to a California-based shadow society with ties to the occult (Michael Ironside provides the foreboding, slightly menacing narration), the brothers Cairnes present "Late Night With the Devil" as the footage from that night's broadcast feed, intercut with behind-the-scenes footage as things on set begin to go awry.

And that's exactly what happens after Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), the show's guest psychic, intercepts a level of paranormal interference in the air, and projectile vomits some sort of black substance from his mouth. Better cut to commercial. Delroy is disturbed but his fear is outweighed by his excitement at the prospect of a ratings bump, and is egged on by his sleazy producer, Leo (Josh Quong Tart). It is sweeps week, after all.

The show builds to an all-out exorcism, with a possessed girl (Ingrid Torelli) conjuring up the spirit of the devil, all for the studio audience and the millions tuning in at home. You can't believe it but you can't stop watching, and that's the point in the world of television.

The Cairnes brothers, Aussies directing their third feature, get a lot of mileage out of the period production design and costuming details, as well as the film grain, all of which lend authenticity to the film's found footage gimmick. It plays like a grindhouse homage to "The King of Comedy."

Dastmalchian is the right mix of low-wattage charm and nervous desperation, but the other actors aren't quite as convincing, and tend to feel slightly hammy. (That goes double for Ian Bliss, who plays magician and paranormal debunker Carmichael the Conjurer, who is dialed especially high, even for a '70s TV illusionist.)

While "Late Night With the Devil's" ending goes a bit off the rails, it for the most part pulls off its stunt and delivers on its premise. It's a show business satire that shows the demonic side of TV ratings wars.

agraham@detroitnews.com

'Late Night With the Devil'

GRADE: B-

Rated R: for violent content, some gore, and language including a sexual reference

Running time: 92 minutes

At the Historic Howell Theater and on Shudder