Late Night With The Devil: Umbrella Night Owls Fan Club Collector's Edition

Genres have conventions, they have rules. Now it’s okay to bend them, and it’s fine to give them a squeeze to open up new ground, but breaking them is something of a no-no. The Found Footage sub-genre is no different from any other, it has rules. But after a generation of lost tapes in the woods and baby monitors, it was time to bend the rules to the point of nearly breaking them for Colin and Cameron Cairnes’ Late Night with the Devil. 

In the world of late-night television, there is one king, Johnny Carson. But in the hunt for the crown is stylish showman Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchain) and his rival program Night Owls. But after the death of his wife, Jack’s show has been in freefall losing the luster of its Emmy-nominated highs. With sweeps week starting on Halloween, Jack has one shot to produce the greatest night of television, regain lost ground, and maybe, finally, outdo Carson. Instead, he inadvertently produces the most infamous and terrifying event ever broadcast live to a nation. 

In general, I’m a tough nut to crack when it comes to found footage movies. If it’s something like Cannibal Holocaust or even The Blair Witch Project where there’s a sturdy framework for why we the audience see the footage unfold, I’m good. I’m on board with that. Movies like Paranormal Activity or things like The Last Exorcism are harder to justify in my head. Something just comes down like a firewall and prevents me from fully enjoying those, even if there are some well-executed scares. Then we have a case like Late Night with the Devil that stretches, bends, and precariously comes close to breaking the rules and conventions of the sub-genre and yet, I’m 100% on board. I fully enjoyed this fright flick. 

For my tastes, Late Night with the Devil works because it plays closer to a pseudo-documentary. After a brief introduction, the film segues into the nefarious episode of Night Owls with Jack Delroy before it intercuts black-and-white behind-the-scenes footage shot during the fraught ad breaks. At the same time, it’s this black-and-white behind-the-scenes footage that very nearly breaks the film. The convention there’s a documentary crew that randomly captures some extremely personal conversations without any kind of pushback from those involved almost feels like a cheat since the crew aren't characters themselves. Why are they there this night of all nights? This footage adds to the rising tension and fear of the situation, but it’s very near a bridge too far for genre conventions. Considering the rest of the film is staged like a 1970s television show, my take is a camera left live or a hot mic picking up the background scuttlebutt would have locked in the vibe. But truly I admit that’s a relatively small quibble for how well Late Night with the Devil plays out. 

And much like the Devil, this film is quite the trickster. It very smartly plays with our expectations giving us many shocks and scares but also several reasons to remain skeptical. There’s a very fun push and pull “What was that?” “How do you explain that?” vibe between our characters to keep us engaged and on the edge of our seats. That is of course until the absolutely bat-shit-crazy climax and everything comes to a head! 

Bringing the film home is a terrific cast. I’m not naming all names or characters because I feel that’d require too much explanation and lead to some obvious spoilers. But ultimately this is David Dastmalchain’s show and he owns it as Jack Delroy. He’s lovable, and he’s instantly relatable making you wish his late-night program was a real thing. But at the same time, Dastmalchain also brings his trademark vacant look that paid off so well in films like Dune, The Boogyman, and even The Suicide Squad among other roles. It’s the look that says “I’m not everything I seem, I’ve got secrets.”  Ages back I met him whilst filming The Dark Knight on a swampy humid Chicago alley off La Salle St. and he’s been fun to see pop up in some great films over the years. He absolutely lights up Late Night with the Devil and I hope it leads to him getting meatier starring roles. 

So, Late Night with the Devil might not be perfect, it might stress and strain the rules of Found Footage films bordering on becoming a mockumentary-style horror film, but it’s a great time. I had a gas seeing this in a full house theater during its brief run on the big screen and I’m glad to see that on my second viewing, it still plays well at home. And great timing too with Holloween on the horizon, this is a damn fun spooky flick that gets in, does its thing, and gets out of the way without eating up too much of your time. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray 

With a new Collector’s Edition from Umbrella Entertainment, you can stay up and enjoy Late Night with the Devil on Blu-ray! A single-disc release, the set offers the film on a Region Free BD-50 disc that’s housed in a standard clear case. The disc is listed is Region B, but when playing on multiple region-locked setups, it plays just fine. The case artwork is reversible so if you don’t like seeing that age rating notice you can flip it around and be ready to roll. Inside the case with the disc is a very cool double-sided poster. Also included with the case are art cards with various international poster reprints and some fun pieces in there. It also comes with a 48-page booklet with essays and very cool behind-the-scenes photos and makeup tests. Perhaps the coolest little swag item is the fictional recreation TV Guide booklet that gives info about Jack Delory, his show, the guests, but also even offers tidbits about new movies like The Legend of Boggy Creek! The attention to detail there is really fun, I only wish it was longer bigger magazine like my dear Grandma used to get! 

Also included with this set is a VHS copy of the Broadcast Cut of Night Owls. I haven’t been able to watch this yet, I have a VHS player but hadn’t used it in a while so I popped in a demo tape to test it, and was promptly eaten! Soooo I won’t be trying that with this edition until I have a player that I know is 100% not going to destroy it.

Late Night with the Devil comes to Blu-ray as something of a mixed bag visually, and that’s by design. The set aspect ratio is 1.78:1 but the actual visuals of the film switch between a classic 1.33:1 television ratio in color and the full 1.78:1 black-and-white “documentary” style footage. And within this stylizing, there are some visual limitations that are again, intentional. The black-and-white documentary scenes look the best as they’re supposed to look like they were shot on film. The 1.33:1 footage looks like a high-quality, well-archived broadcast tape master. It’s appropriately faded, resolution is appropriately limited with muted semi-washed out colors. The film was actually shot digitally and it’s impressive the work that went into creating these visual shifts, letting these moments be distinct but cohesive to the whole. And overall I’m very pleased with this transfer on disc. Umbrella did a heck of a job with the disc, it looks great and captures much of the visual flair I enjoyed in the theater. Now Capelight in Germany and Second Sight out of the U.K. both have their own 4K discs coming (or already available) and I’m curious to get a look at those once I have a hand on them. This film’s image is limited by design, and those broadcast segments just don’t feel like great candidates for 2160p. Who knows, though, maybe I’ll be surprised! As is, this Blu-ray transfer is excellent.

On the audio front, we have two options, DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0. Both are very good, both have clean dialog and play well to the stylings of an archival television show with interspersed behind-the-scenes footage. To that end, I’d lean more favorably to the 5.1 over the 2.0. It’s a little bit more lively, and the imaging of the audio elements is a little more impactful even if it doesn’t have a terribly dominant spread throughout the channels. Both are clean tracks. Both sound great and serve the film well, but after replaying some of the bigger crazier scenes, I definitely favor the 5.1.

On the disc-based bonus features front, Umbrella unveils a nice selection of materials to dig into. The big star of the show is the full Broadcast Cut of Night Owls episode which actually plays pretty well all on its own. It might lack the rising tension of the behind-the-scenes interstitial sequences to help amp up the theatricality of the production, but the attention to detail as a pseudo-broadcast master tape with color card and tone breaks and fade notices, it is really cool! There are also some cool teases and “recording anomalies” in this version we don’t see in the main film, so def check it out. As far as “production-specific” extras, the best is the Q&A, even if it’s fairly brief. The Behind-the-scenes and making of the music segments are interesting but very brief. 

• Broadcast Cut of Night Owls (HD-ish 1:10:06)
• Behind-the-Scenes Reel (HD 5:59)
• Making of Night Owls Music (HD 4:30)
• SXSW 2023 Screening Q&A With Directors and Cast (HD 8:46)
• BTS Stills Gallery
• Trailer
• Swag Items:
• Broadcast Cut of Night Owls VHS
• Double-sided Poster 
• 48-page Booklet
• Reproduction TV Guide
• Art Cards

It might be something of a fortune-telling error on my part to suggest that Late Night with the Devil might not go down in history as one of the best horror films ever made, but it should rank as a damn fun one worth remembering and revisiting. Ever since it started making noise at the 2023 SXSW screening, I was eager to see the film on the big screen. Once it finally started showing my way I was glad I made the trek to catch it. It’s creepy, it’s entertaining, and it’s a clever concept that bends the found footage sub-genre conventions. Colin and Cameron Cairnes made a hell of a film and star David Dastmalchain anchors the entire endeavor with a hell of a performance. Umbrella Entertainment delivers a terrific Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release offering up a great A/V presentation and solid extras. I’m not always a fan of swag items, but the booklet is really cool and informative and the recreation TV guide is a gas. There are a lot of different editions of this film out there in the world, and we’re going to cover a couple of them, but I have to say Umbrella did a knockout job with this one, $90 USD is a lot to ask, you’re gonna need to love the film, but this is a very fun box set! Highly Recommended