Hello fellow watchers. I'm here again for another movie review and it's another recent horror movie. This time around, it's Late Night with the Devil which is a semi-found footage style movie. The lead, David Dastmalchian, looked very familiar to me but I couldn't pinpoint exactly where I've seen him. As it turns out, he also played Polkadot Man in The Suicide Squad and I'm really fond of his character in that movie.
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Late Night with the Devil is set in the style of a 1970s talk show. They claim it was a found footage in the beginning of the film but never really stayed true to that format. The "behind the scenes" moments did not look like candid recordings but actual movie shots, which kind of took me away from the experience a little bit.
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What can I say about this movie, it had a very good start. The first guest which was a spirit medium, really set an impressive foreshadowing of what was about to happen. The arrival of the second guest which was a huge skeptic in everything paranormal was a great contrast, especially when the guardian and patient duo arrived. There was also the hypnosis scene which was a very good false suspense. I really thought that was the beginning of the revelation that the possession was real. It was setting up tension really good and I was invested as to how the story would unfold.
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But then the plot fell apart in the last act. The possessed girl suddenly got electrified and killed everyone in the set except the host. The host was then stuck in a mind loop. They touched on the Secret Owl Society, which was based on a real conspiracy theory, but did not elaborate enough. It felt so rushed and unimaginative. I know some may not agree but that's just my personal opinion. I was expecting so much more than that messy ending that unfolded.
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I think it would have been better if the skeptical guest slowly got hints that the demonic possesion was real. A surprise reappearance of the deceased first guest, Christou, would have also added shock value to the plot. The entire set getting locked up, the audience randomly getting slaughtered in horrific fashion, then the possessed girl getting killed in the end and the host getting charged with murder, those were some of the thoughts on my head as to what the ending scene would have looked like.
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I must say I was left disappointed with Late Night with the Devil. It had so much potential in the story and it just did not quite deliver the explosive ending it deserved. There were a lot of plotholes that were left unresolved. The movie was also introduced as a found footage but did not faithfully stick to the format. I would give this movie a 6 out of 10 just because of the interesting first half.