Late Night with the Devil

Freaky found footage flick is loads of fun.

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A lot of y’all probably know David Dastmalchian’s face but not his name. He’s a character actor who often excels at playing creeps. I believe the first time I took notice of Dastmalchian was as Thomas Schiff, a wannabe assassin working for Heath Ledger’s Joker in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight.” The second you see Dastmalchian’s face you know Schiff is bad news.

He’s subsequently made a habit out of working with director du jour Denis Villeneuve by popping up in “Prisoners,” “Blade Runner 2049” and “Dune” and appeared in both the Marvel Cinematic Universe (he’s Kurt, the computer hacker member of Scott Lang’s crew in the “Ant-Man” movies) and DC Extended Universe (he was the memorably ridiculous “Polka-Dot Man” in James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad”).

Dastmalchian’s latest role casts him in the lead for a change. He plays 1970s late night talk show host Jack Delroy in the found footage horror film “Late Night with the Devil” (now in select theaters and premiering on Shudder Friday, April 19) from writer/director brothers Cameron and Colin Cairnes.

We’re treated to a prologue chronicling Delroy’s ascent to fame, his struggles to compete with late night rival Johnny Carson, possible involvement with an Illuminati-esque organization and the loss of his stage actress wife Madeleine (Georgina Haig) to lung cancer despite her not being a smoker.

We then segue into the fateful, final episode of Delroy’s “Night Owls” where as a Halloween sweeps stunt he has a series paranormally-affiliated guests on the program. Among them are loudmouthed magician Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), medium Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), parapsychologist June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and her teenage subject/surrogate daughter Lilly D’Abo (an appropriately and effectively creepy Ingrid Torelli) – the sole survivor of a satanic cult.

The stakes grow higher and circumstances more dire as the show progresses, but Delroy proceeds despite protests from his sidekick co-host Gus McConnell (Rhys Auteri) and Ross-Mitchell at the prompting of his sleazy producer Leo Fiske (Josh Quong Tart).

I admired a great deal about “Late Night with the Devil.” The Cairnes brothers do a wonderful job of capturing a ‘70s aura, developing dread while also being droll and staging one freak-out of a finale. Dastmalchian and his co-stars sell all this craziness with aplomb. Dastmalchian’s Delroy makes the wrong decision at almost every turn, but the actor’s performance makes you sympathize with the personal and professional reasons why he’d do so.

“Late Night with the Devil” is a fun flick that sometimes feels like a work of pure evil. It’s well worth staying up for.