Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) and June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) in a ... [+]
David Dastmalchian, the star of Late Night with the Devil — new on streaming — says his horror film is relatable to audiences because everybody has demons within.
The indie horror sensation — which earned a stellar 97% “fresh” rating and an 82% positive audience score on Rotten Tomatoes upon its March 22 theatrical release — makes its streaming video on demand debut Friday on Shudder.
Dastmalchian, of course, is no stranger to audiences thanks to his memorable turns in such films as Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and Oppenheimer, James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad for DC and Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man trilogy for Marvel. Apart from his busy career as an actor, though, Dastmalchian is also the author of the Count Crowley: Midnight Monster Hunter comic book series.
The Dark Horse Comics release features the plight of Jerri Bartman, a late-night TV horror movie host struggling with addiction who finds purpose as a monster hunter. In a Zoom interview before the release of Late Night with the Devil in theaters, Dastmalchian told me that the story of his bedeviled TV talker Jack Delroy, in Late Night with the Devil has a lot in common with his Count Crowley character.
“All of the ideas that I think are churning underneath the heart of what's happening in Count Crowley with Jerri Bartman is kindred to what's going on with Jack Delroy in Late Night with the Devil,” Dastmalchian said. “Here you've got individuals wrestling with identity crisis, alcoholism, anxiety and depression, manic episodes and suddenly all of the demons within them are becoming manifest in the world around them.”
As such, Dastmalchian added, the dilemmas that Jerri faces in Count Crowley and Jack in Late Night with the Devil are issues readers or viewers can identify with, albeit in a less fantastical sort of manner.
“I think it’s something that all of us can relate to on a day-to-day basis, especially when we're battling the demons within us,” Dastmalchian observed. “What are the voices in our heads that are making us question ourselves, fear things, riddle ourselves with insecurity? What's real and what's not? What's the big monster in the darkness and what's actually just clothes hanging on a hanger in the closet? What is real and what is not?’
“And with both of these different stories — although tonally they're quite different —there's a great invisible string of ideas between them that I think is really fun,” Dasmalchian added.
‘Late Night With The Devil’ Details Delroy’s Terrifying Halloween 1977 Broadcast
A film that follows the found-footage format, Late Night with the Devil “re-airs” the horrifying final broadcast of Night Owls with Jack Delroy, a 1970s-era late-night talk show that at one point was a fierce competitor of the legendary Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Following a downslide in ratings that found the show mimicking the antics of sensationalistic shows hosted by the likes of Jerry Springer and Morton Downey, Delroy attempts to stage a comeback to his former glory with a Halloween broadcast on October 31, 1977.
As such, Delroy pulls out all the stops for the fright-inducing episode, which includes psychic Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), paranormal skeptic Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), parapsychologist June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and her 13-year-old patient Lilly (Ingrid Torelli) — who is seemingly possessed by a demon.
Heightening the tension is Delroy’s association with an infamous group that practices in the occult, and the TV talker's own demons over the loss of his wife, Madeline (Georgina Haig) — which makes the host’s last-ditch attempt to save the show all more daunting.
“[Jack] knows that he's got so many people's jobs and careers riding on his success,” Dastmalchian told me. “He also knows that the legacy of his recently deceased wife — the love of his life — has put all of this pressure on him to succeed [and increase the] longevity of Night Owls. For him, saving the show is really saving his own life.”
Ultimately, Dastmalchian said, Delroy is willing to do what he can to ensure his life and legacy and willing to play with fire — and effectively, the devil: “If you look at it that way, if you were poised with the question of, ‘Tonight is the night you have an opportunity to save your life, save your legacy, save the legacy of the woman you love the most, would you be willing to bend the parameters of your own ideas about ethics and morality? Would you be willing to push the limits of what you know is acceptable, if only because you knew that the outcome was going to lead to a positive end?’”
Written and directed by Cameron and Colin Cairnes, Late Night with the Devil is streaming on Shudder.
