This time Art reviews Late Night With The Devil

This is the type of thing that Art is probably going to like as a spooky movie. And in fact I did really like this one. Something about a solid depiction of the deconstruction of reality in (simulated) realtime appeals to me. Sez a lot about your birb maybe but here we are.

I need to first say the set and costume work were just fantastic. Jack’s hair, clothes, the period depiction of everyone in the audience, it was just great. It sold the story to a great extent even without the actors. It’s an undervalued part of the show but part of the necessary bits that everything hinges on.

But the actors were game for this one thankfully. Starting with the protagonist/POS Jack (David Dastmalchian), absolutely turns in a performance that is necessary for the film to succeed. I’m really enthralled by this performance because I both want him to succeed and I want him to die. No small feat!

And part of that is always going to be the actor’s expressive face but let’s give credit to the script here. I liked the undersell of the backstory. It was background until it wasn’t but never knocked over our heads. (I’ll return in a minute)

Actors Fayssal Bazzi, Rhys Auteri, Ingrid Torelli, and Ian Bliss turn in lodestone performances as Christou the apparent actual psychic (to his dismay), Gus the sidekick who understands too much (was this a Guillermo spoof?), the unfortunate vessel of evil, and the Amazing Randi stand in–all this respectively. We have to give props too for Laura Gordon as Dr. Gordon. She sold her part as being concerned about her patient but unable/unwilling to control what happens.

Turning back to the story, Jack is a real piece of work. He seems to not understand anything until he does, but then he doesn’t care. We all know a Jack–we all hope we are not Jack. There is a complete desperation we see in Jack’s eyes that I think we all know. This is the essence of the spooky part that lands.

And so in turn we come to examination of The Club. The shadowy group that it is implied is a sort of demonic pact for power and influence. The obvious influence is groups that are very much in reality but don’t need some sort of supernatural force. We all find comfort, then, in the idea if we could just defeat this one big bad we could all live in the utopia we were promised. Well folks, I can promise anything you’d like. Give me the pay now, and get the reward later. And like Jack, we willfully ignore until it’s too late.

 

There are a lot of great posters for this one of course. I picked my fav, but as usual I’ll post some others below. Too often I think the posters implied obvious evil intent to Jack, but the true horror is he was just a frail person. The only evil was the susceptibility to desire.

Art recommends obviously.