-- Moviesdrives.com -- Late.night.with.the.devi... Apr 2026

Late Night with the Devil is scary in the way a car crash on live television is scary. You know something terrible is going to happen, but you cannot change the channel. The final twenty minutes abandon the "found footage" rules slightly, moving into surreal, psychedelic imagery that recalls Hellraiser meets Network . It is loud, chaotic, and genuinely unsettling. For fans of Ghostwatch , The V/H/S series, or Noroi: The Curse , this is required viewing. It respects the intelligence of the audience, treating the 70s setting not as a costume but as a character.

Jack Delroy is not a monster; he is a man hollowed out by ambition. His wife has recently died of cancer, and the show’s ratings are slipping. When the teenage medium, Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), begins speaking in tongues and levitating, Jack doesn’t call for help. He calls for a commercial break. He sees the possession not as a supernatural crisis, but as a career resurgence.

Released in 2023 but set on Halloween night, 1977, this film has already cemented itself as a modern horror classic. But why does it work so well? And why should you stream it immediately? The film presents itself as a recovered broadcast of a fictional show, Night Owls with Jack Delroy . We watch the VHS-quality tape as host Jack Delroy (a career-best performance by David Dastmalchian) tries to compete with Johnny Carson’s ratings. To win the sweeps week, Jack invites a parapsychologist, a skeptical magician, and a young girl who is the sole survivor of a Satanic church’s mass suicide. -- moviesdrives.com -- Late.Night.with.the.Devi...

This is where the film cuts deepest. In the 1970s, television was a god. Today, it’s the algorithm. Late Night with the Devil is a sharp critique of the entertainment industry’s willingness to sacrifice human beings for "content." Jack Delroy would sell his soul for a laugh track—and eventually, he does. One clever structural choice divides audiences: the film uses a documentary voiceover to contextualize the "lost tape," explaining the lore of Jack’s infamous "Grove" (a fictional Bohemian Grove-style retreat). While some purists argue the documentary segments break the immersion, they actually serve a vital purpose. They turn the film into a historical artifact. By the time the third act descends into chaotic, body-horror madness (featuring a vomit-demon and a reality-bending finale), you feel like you are watching a crime scene, not a movie. Is It Actually Scary? Yes, but not in the way The Exorcist is scary.

What follows is a slow, hypnotic burn. The Cairnes brothers don’t just mimic 70s television; they inhabit it. From the cigarette smoke curling in the studio lights to the cheesy commercial breaks (fictional ads for "Nite Owl" coffee grounds), the authenticity is staggering. The true horror of Late Night with the Devil isn’t the demonic possession itself—it’s the desperation. Late Night with the Devil is scary in

There is a specific flavor of dread that comes from watching static. The hum of a cathode-ray tube. The slightly-too-bright glow of a 1970s television set. In their found-footage masterpiece, Late Night with the Devil , directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes weaponize that nostalgia, turning the golden age of late-night talk shows into the darkest night of the soul.

Available to rent on all major VOD platforms and currently streaming on Shudder. What do you think? Did Jack Delroy deserve his fate, or was he just a victim of the industry? Let us know in the comments below. It is loud, chaotic, and genuinely unsettling

Feature / Horror / Retro-Review

By MoviesDrives.com Staff