“Late Night with the Devil” brings some fresh satiric spin to its familiar genre territory, and I like that. Yes, this is basically another your average found footage horror film, but it is a skillful genre product packaged with some wry sense of humor, and the result, which incidentally looks as authentic as required by its period background setting, is often darkly funny and amusing enough to tickle us before eventually reaching to its expected grand finale.

Before following what happened during the 1977 Halloween episode of a fictional late-night talk show, the movie gives a brief background information on Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian), the host of that fictional late-night talk show. There was a time when he and his show seemed to be going up to the level of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson”, but, alas, he and his show somehow remained below that top level even though he was willing to try anything for drawing more primetime viewers out there. As a matter of fact, he even did something quite shameless involved with his dying wife not long before she passed away, just because that would guarantee a higher rating for his show.

However, Delroy and his show kept going down to the frustration of him and his producers since that highpoint, so he decided to do something quite sensational for the Halloween episode in 1977, which could be a big deciding factor on the future of his show. He came to invite not only a psychic but also a young girl who might be a real case of demonic possession, and he also added a skeptic magician willing to expose any fraud, just because, well, that would make the episode more interesting for his audiences.

The main part of the movie, which is deliberately shot in the low-quality video of 1.33:1 screen ratio, cheerfully follows the familiar format of the late-night talk shows in the 1970s. After the announcement of several special guests to appear, Delroy makes a humorous appearance as expected, and that is followed by the appearance of his first guest of this night, who gives a fairly good opening performance for Delroy and his audiences as your typical psychic.

However, there soon come a series of rather disturbing signs. After somehow sensing something very strong around the end of his performance, the psychic looks quite disturbed to say the least, and then we are served with a sudden happening not so far from that infamous gross moment in “The Exorcist” (1973). While naturally quite surprised just like many others around him, Delroy does not mind at all because such an unexpected thing like that is always good for drawing more attention to his talk show.

Whenever the show takes a brief break, the movie switches to black and white film of a wider scope for showing more of what is going on around the set of Delroy’s show, and that is where the movie becomes more satirical. When the situation is becoming more serious than expected, one of Delroy’s colleagues shows understandable concerns, but, like those cynical TV company executives of “Network” (1976), Delroy is still quite willing to go further for higher ratings, even though he is also visibly disturbed by what occurs right in front of him and others. Around the point where that girl who has been supposedly possessed by some dark force out there, things surely get pretty tense and sensational for Delroy and others around him, but he cannot help but delighted and excited as it seems he is really almost close to something to catapult him and his show to the top of his field.

It goes without saying that Delory will come to get much more than what he has wished for, and the movie does not disappoint us at all when it is about to pull all the stops for more scary entertainment for us. Although it stumbles a bit when it attempts to surprise us more around the ending, the competent direction by directors/writers/editors Colin and Cameron Cairnes keeps holding our attention to the end, and you will also enjoy a series of nice authentic period details which are presented well with a tongue-in-cheek attitude.

The main performers of the movie play their characters as straight as possible, and their good performances bring some extra plausibility even when the film goes quite wild during its last act. David Dastmalchian, a rising character actor who has recently appeared in a number of notable films such as “Ant-Man” (2015), “Blade Runner 2049” (2017), “The Suicide Squad” (2021), and “Dune” (2021), is pitch-perfect in his slick urban appearance coupled with opportunistic cynicism, and we are not so surprised when the movie later reveals a bit more of whatever his character actually did in exchange for fame and success. Around Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Rhys Auteri, and Josh Quong Tart are also effective in their respective supporting roles, and the special mention goes to Ingrid Torelli, who instantly generates an uncanny vibe right from her first scene in the film and then never steps back at all as gradually dialing up the level of suspense along with the story.

Although it mostly sticks to its familiar genre conventions, “Late Night with the Devil” has a lot of devilish fun inside its genre territory while giving us as much as promised to us from the beginning, and Dastmalchian demonstrates here more of his considerable talent and presence than before. This is certainly one of more memorable performances from him, and I think we are going to watch and enjoy more of him during next several years to come.