I was born smack in the middle of the 1980s, so I missed the 1970s completely.  From what my parents have told me, it was a pretty cool time to be alive and coming of age (they were in their late teens and early twenties throughout the decade)—great music, crazy fashion, pool halls, etc.  Even though I missed the decade (and can barely claim to have “experienced” the 1980s, the greatest of all recent American decades), the 1970s were everywhere growing up.  South Carolina, like most rural States, lagged behind the pop cultural curve slightly, so the 1970s loomed large in fashion and architecture.  Plus, the 1990s saw a revival of the 1970s aesthetic, so the influence of the decade musically, culturally, and even sartorially was a big part of my early years.

Of course, the 1970s had loads of problems, too—crazy inflation; stagnant job growth; a wildly popular bamboozled out of office, followed by a clueless boob; a devastating, unpopular, unnecessary war.  It seems that I’ll never escape the Brutalist architecture of the time period, which still dominates the crumbling public buildings of offices of local, State, and national governments.  The Lamar Town Hall is a squat, ugly building, facing a squat, ugly U.S. Post Office.  While I like the earth tones of the 1970s—call me crazy, but there’s something about burnt orange, dark mustard, and drab olive-brown that I find aesthetically appealing—the decade’s aesthetic was an affront to Beauty, and probably to God Himself.  Perhaps wide lapels were the sartorial equivalent of the Tower of Babel—“our lapels will reach to touch the Face of God!”  No wonder we struggled under stagflation for so long.

For all its virtues and many, many vices, however, the 1970s possessed a distinct flair, especially when it came to the television talk show and variety show.  So when I heard there was a horror film that took place on the set of a fictional late-night talk show on Halloween of 1977, I had to watch it.  That film is Late Night with the Devil (2023).

Late Night with the Devil stars David Dastmalchian (say that five times fast) as Jack Delroy, the host of the popular late-night show Night Owls with Jack Delroy.  The show is a hit, but struggles to beat Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show, because, well, it’s Johnny Carson.  Jack is an affable and clean-cut host with a beautiful and loving wife, and is doing well overall.

He’s also a member of an exclusive men’s club called “The Grove,” based on the real-world Bohemian Grove, the elitist “summer camp” where a cabal of the super wealthy cavort in the woods performing (I think) Satanic rituals (though maybe they’re just doing gay stuff in the forest; who knows).  It’s unclear what the group does, but the detail pays off very late in the film in a way you probably would expect.

Jack’s loving wife passes away abruptly from lung cancer, even though she never smoked.  Devastated, he puts the show on hiatus, but returns for a special on Halloween Night of 1977.  His guests include a cold-reading psychic; a former magician-turned-skeptic; and a parapsychologist, June, with her young charge, Lilly.  Lilly is the survivor of an occult mass suicide.  The cult worshipped Abraxas, a demon that doubles as some kind of Gnostic pygmy.

Everything is rolling along in the vein of a spooky Halloween special when the psychic suffers an intense request from a “Minnie” to communicate to the audience before spewing black bile from his mouth.  He’s rushed to the hospital while the show clomps on, the skeptic taking great glee in calling everyone out on their cheap parlor tricks and supernatural shenanigans.  Then June and Lilly come out, and right away we know that Lilly is creepy.  She makes intent, unblinking eye contact with the camera, and is always finding—almost instinctively—which camera is active at any moment.  As we come to learn, the attention-loving Abraxas possesses Lilly, and it seems it is he who is controlling her motions.

To reveal more would spoil the fun, but let’s just say that the skeptic gets proved wrong.  One tiny, amusing spoiler:  the skeptic carries a blank check of a substantial amount that he will award to anyone who demonstrates a genuine parapsychological or supernatural phenomenon; when he finally experiences one in a truly terrifying way, he sheepishly offers up the check to Abraxas before being burned from the inside out.  Whoa!

Late Night with the Devil is an independent film, a joint venture of America, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates, but it has the polish and finish of a major studio production.  The setting is also very unique, and plays into the concept of a mass demonic possession or manipulation via television, an idea that has been explored in other films and short stories with interesting results.  The movie leaves the consequences of seeing a demonic possession live on air open to interpretation, although it’s quite clear that the immediate impact to Jack’s guests is quite lethal.

The film premiered at SXSW in March 2023, but did not enjoy a wide release here in the States until March 2024.  It seemed to do well at the box office, although I don’t know the film’s budget.  Like a 1970s late-night show, most of the effects are practical, with some VFX when Abraxas goes full demon.

It’s the best kind of horror movie, because it deals with the dark side of the supernatural, the side that is True.  For all the charlatans and tricksters out there, there are far more genuine—and wicked—forces lurking.

We see but through a glass darkly.