Late Night with the Devil

The latest from Australian horror filmmaker siblings Colin and Cameron Cairnes (100 Bloody Acres, Scare Campaign) is the story of a late-night talk show broadcast on Halloween Night 1977, where the host attempts to boost ratings by booking a psychic, a debunker, a parapsychologist, and a supposedly possessed girl as guests. While mostly shot in the found-footage style as if this were an actual tape of an actual broadcast, the filmmakers inexplicably interweave qazi-documentary-style footage of what went on during the commercial breaks. During these segments, shot in black & white, the characters engage in behavior that bears no resemblance at all to what people on a talk show would do during breaks, nor to the running time of commercial breaks. Without these behind-the-scenes interludes, the movie might end up feeling legitimately creepy, but with them, the theatricality and artificiality of the execution undermines the conceit.