Late Night with the Devil should make David Dastmalchian a star

Horror movies have really lacked panache lately. Sure, there have been plenty of horror movies with great stories or structural imaginings, or excellent horror movies. But covering the basics of memorable horror isn't the same as stretching stylistically and brazenly committing to a specific aesthetic, time period, or mood like Shudder and IFC's new horror Late Night with the Devil do. That film, in theaters this week, has enough flair to make up for what the rest of the films have lacked.

Set in the late 1970s, Late Night with the Devil is framed as a documentary that follows the ill-fated final broadcast of fictional TV host Jack Delroy. During that broadcast, something so horrific happened that it has haunted the history of live television ever since.

Jack (David Dastmalchian), we learn, has soared in the ranks of late-night talk show fame and was once second only to Johnny Carson. Jack's success was due to his amazing charm and charisma, although the story also mentions a shady connection to the real-life, cult-like Bohemian Grove – a magnet for 70s conspiracy theories. But since those halcyon days, Jack's ratings have dropped, and he's becoming desperate for viewers. That's how he comes to invite an allegedly possessed young girl to his show on Halloween night.