Movie Review Late Night with the Devil

Late Night with the Devil (2024) 

Directed by Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes 

Written by Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes 

Starring David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss 

Release Date March 22nd, 2024 

Published March 21st, 2024 

Late Night with the Devil stars David Dastmalchian, forever an actor out of time, as 1970's talk show legend, Jack Delroy. In 1971, Jack Delroy left the world of morning radio for the chance to compete next to Johnny Carson in the realm of late night TV as the show of Night Owls with Jack Delroy. For a time, it appeared that Jack might just eclipse the King of Late Night, Carson, but by 1976, things were no longer going Jack's way. Jack's beloved wife, played by Georgina Haig, died of cancer, not long after he had her appear on the show to share their struggle for ratings. 

After taking a month away to recover from the loss of his wife, Jack returned to the stage to try and salvage his show and his career. It's Halloween night and Jack has an idea that he hopes can get him back on top. Jack has booked a pair of guests with supposedly supernatural talents. Christou (Fayssal Bazzi) is a mentalist with a talent for speaking to the dead. He will demonstrate this talent on the show and then face off with a skeptic, a former magician turned debunker, Carmichael the Conjurer (Ian Bliss). Carmichael is based off of real life magician turned debunker, and 70s celebrity, The Amazing Randi. 

Christou may or may not be a charlatan, one that Carmichael can debunk with relative ease, but a greater challenge to the skeptic and the talk show host is booked next. Author and para-psychiatrist, Dr. June Ross Mitchell is bringing her patient, Lily (Ingrid Torrelli) on the show. Lily was the only survivor of a death cult that worshiped a Devil adjacent demon known as Abraxas. Dr. Ross-Mitchell has written a book about Lily's demonic possession by a demon that Lily calls "Mr. Wriggles." On tonight's show, Dr. Ross-Mitchell is set to place Lily in a trance and bring the demon out of her in front of the world and prove that demonic possession is real. 

What we know, and these characters do not, is that what we are seeing is recovered footage thought lost forever. The concept behind Late Night with the Devil is that this is footage of the most controversial live television broadcast in history, a test footage that was thought lost forever. The entirety of the story of Late Night with the Devil, aside from an opening prologue introducing us to the host, Jack Delroy, is portrayed a recovered recording directly from 1976 and being played back for the first time since it was broadcast. The look of the movie is a near perfect recreation of a 1970's television broadcast, right down to the grainy quality indicative of a live to tape broadcast from nearly 50 years ago. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media 

Movie Review The Last Voyage of the Demeter

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) 

Directed by Andre Ovredal 

Written by Bragi Schut Jr, Zak Olkewicz 

Starring Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian 

Release Date August 11th, 2023

Published August 13th, 2023 

The Last Voyage of Demeter is the second attempt this year by Universal Pictures to tap the Dracula I.P for box office dollars. The first attempt, Renfield, was a disaster business-wise. Whether you enjoyed Renfield or not, the movie cost $65 million dollars and made $26.7 million at the box office. The Last Voyage of Demeter cost Universal and Amblin Entertainment more than $45 million dollars and on its opening weekend, Demeter made a meager $6.5 million. This is no reflection on the quality of The Last Voyage of Demeter but rather on the marketing of the movie which failed to convey the horror elements of the movie well enough to rope in that often very loyal market. 

As for the movie, it's far better than the reputation the film now has another Dracula related box office failure. The film stars Corey Hawkins, a tremendous young actor who appears doomed to supporting roles after his leading man play here failed at the box office. Hawkins plays a man named Clemens who purports to be one of the first black doctors to graduate from Cambridge University. However, because of the severe racism of the time, Clemens was unable to find work after his graduation. He then accepted a position in Romania only to find that he'd been offered the position by someone who didn't know Clemens was black. 

Now, having been stranded in Romania for an unspecified amount of time, Clemens finds a potential way to get home to England. A ship called Demeter is set to transport cargo around the Horn of Africa and back to England, a two and a half month trip. They need hands and after locals refuse to board the ship, having seen carvings and symbols on the cargo that they recognize as evil, Clemens finds himself hired as Ship's Doctor and Deck Hand. He's also getting a share of a small fortune that the crew of the Demeter has been given for this trip, a sum large enough to get the Captain (Liam Cunningham) and his first mate, Wojchek (David Dastmalchian) to ignore the many, many red flags going up regarding this trip. 

It should not be very hard, nor should it be considered a spoiler, to know that the cargo is, in fact, the body of Count Dracula (Javier Botet), his many possessions, and a young woman, Anna (Aisling Franciosi), who is set to be Dracula's traveling snack until he starts chowing down on crew members. Plans change when the box containing Anna breaks during the trip and she's rescued by Clemens. Dracula then is forced to start feeding on livestock and then step up to eating the crew while leaving just enough of them alive to finish the journey to England. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media 

Movie Review The Boogeyman

The Boogeyman (2023) 

Directed by Rob Savage 

Written by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, Mark Heyman

Starring Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina, Vivian Lyra Blair, David Dastmalchian 

Release Date June 2nd, 2023 

Published June 5th, 2023 

As I write this, I saw the new horror film, The Boogeyman, two days ago and I am struggling to remember anything about it. This could, perhaps, be a mental breakdown on my part, but my working theory is that The Boogeyman is such a boring movie that my mind didn't bother to find anything worth remembering about it. There is not a single original moment in the entirety of The Boogeyman. There is not a single memorable sequence that could make this movie worth remembering after you see it. The Boogeyman is so bland and generic it could be retitled as Nightmare Man and re-released to theaters and few people would notice or care. 

The Boogeyman stars a lovely young actress named Sophie Thatcher as Sadie Harper. Sadie and her little sister, Sawyer (Vivian Lyra Brown), are grieving the very recent loss of their mother. Chris Messina plays their distant and equally grieving father, Will. Will is terrified of being a single dad to two frightened and traumatized young girls so he throws himself back into his work as a psychiatrist while avoiding any kind of serious conversation with his children, especially Sadie who tries and fails to get him to open up. 

The plot kicks in when a deeply haunted and disturbed patient forces his way into Will's office. The patient is Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian), a man who is believed by many to have murdered his two children. Billings however, claims that a monster killed his kids. This monster attacks your children while you aren't paying attention. It also feeds on vulnerable children, kids who have, perhaps, suffered a very recent and painful trauma. You can see where this is headed. The curse that this haunted man carries attaches itself to Sadie and Sawyer and it will be up to Sadie to save her sister from this monster that comes to be known as The Boogeyman. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media