One of the most praised and original horror films of last year has reached streaming services (not yet Russian ones). The original film by Cameron and Colin Cairns is called Late Night with the Devil. As you might guess, he makes satirical comments about late-night shows. And where there are late-night shows, there is a deconstruction of the entire television culture of America. And where there is TV, there is pop culture in general. But it’s easy to get into the film without even understanding its endless references.
“Midnight with the Devil” takes place in 1977.
The main character is Jack Delroy, the host of the evening show “Night Owls”. He is quite popular and loved by Americans, but for years he has not been able to jump above “second place.” His show’s ratings are downhill. Despite the fact that Jack sacrifices everything for him, even his own family. In a desperate attempt to keep the “Owls” afloat, he goes to great lengths, gradually turning his evening show into a near-trash performance. We have already compared it with the iconic “Windows” in its own way.
For Halloween 1977, Jack goes all in with a potentially shocking themed special. He invites to the show a man who talks to the dead, a skeptical illusionist and a girl possessed by the devil, Lilly, accompanied by a psychologist. You can already guess what happens next. At first it all looks kitsch, funny and rather innocent. But we know that we actually have horror here. Therefore, the tension gradually begins to boil, and conversations with the audience and interruptions to advertising only intensify it. Just like the long “peaceful” scenes in Paranormal Activity. And they present the film as a “found footage” – today a well-worn, but still effectively nerve-wracking horror genre.
Everything ends as expected – horribly, in the most correct sense. And this is not a spoiler. The direction is clear from the start, but that doesn’t take away from the final shock.
“Midnight with the Devil” is a budget, but extremely stylish and even profound movie
It was not for nothing that the filmmakers chose the 70s and worked out the setting to the best of their ability. At the end of the 70s, television was still very powerful in America. How long to wait until the Internet! On the other hand, the audience had already begun to get tired of established formats, and producers tried to surprise people in an attempt to maintain and increase ratings. Of course, all the means were good. There was no need to worry about ethics, responsibility and age restrictions in those wild years. Therefore, on TV, next to family sitcoms, quite legal, high-budget trash was often created.
The wild, protest-era 1970s in the United States is the most dangerous, free, and narcissistic decade in pop culture. That’s what Midnight with the Devil does. Intimate, but just as meticulous as Tarantino worked with the “golden age” in “Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood.” And to feel this, you don’t have to know which TV telepaths the “magician” Kristu, who speaks with the dead, refers to – you will still recognize the “general” image. You don’t need to know much about Anton LaVey’s “Church of Satan” to spot something familiar in the character of local Satanist Sandor D’Abo, in whose cult the possessed girl Lilly grew up. It is perhaps impossible to cut yourself off from pop culture so much as not to catch the atmosphere of “Midnight with the Devil” and not be inspired by it.
Charlatans, skeptics, Satanists, live trash, dad humor, retro melancholy and futuristic fun – all this is collected in one Halloween episode of the Night Owls show, which the film pretends to be. The cast is not familiar, but very strong. The styling is impeccable. A tenacious, intense mockumentary that, at the level of associations, tangentially touches on the old evening show from Alan Wake 2, and creepypastas about TV incidents. The film will be released in Russia on June 6, and is now available to watch on Shudder and Amazon Prime Video.
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