How Late Night With the Devil gave Satan the talk-show hot seat

The quest for ratings success on TV can be a bloody business, literally so in the case of horror movie Late Night With the Devil. Written and directed by Australian filmmaking siblings Colin and Cameron Cairnes, the genre title stars David Dastmalchian as Jack Delroy, the host of a New York-based late-night talk show called Night Owls who stages a spooky episode on Halloween night with violent and terrifying consequences.

"His ratings have been plummeting," Cameron Cairnes tells EW over Zoom, "so he goes to some…"

"...supernaturally extreme lengths..." Colin Cairnes interjects.

"...to see if he can get a bit of a boost in the ratings," Cameron continues. "He invites on a skeptic, a mindreader, and a parapsychologist and her ward, who may or may not be possessed by the Devil. You can expect hell to literally break loose live on TV."

See for yourself in EW's exclusive teaser trailer debut above.

The film, releasing on March 22 from IFC Films and Shudder, is a rare starring vehicle for Dastmalchian, best known for his supporting roles in 2008's The Dark Knight, the Ant-Man movies, and last year's Oppenheimer. The Cairnes brothers were previously aware of (and impressed by) that body of work, but the pair decided to approach him about taking the leading part of Jack Delroy after reading a 2021 article the actor wrote in horror magazine Fangoria.

"David had written about horror hosts," Colin recalls. "Pretty much every city in America, once upon a time, had its own late-night horror host who’d introduce spooky movies late at night. So once we knew [about] his love for the genre, and clearly knew about his acting chops, it felt like he might be our guy."

Growing up in Australia, the Cairnes siblings were unable to view the talk shows hosted by late-night icons like Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett. (The fictional Delroy is considered a rival of Carson in the film.) Instead, the pair watched a local version presented by an American named Don Lane.

"Don Lane was a big influence on the story," Cameron explains. "Don was open to all things supernatural and had a real affinity for those people and that world. He was somebody David had no [knowledge] of. We sent him some clips of Don, amongst other clips of Carson and Cavett, but he really took to Don and I think you can see that in his performance."

The actor, which Colin describes as "very fast on his feet" for his improvisatory banter, is at the center of a film that is essentially presented as an episode of TV — presumably the last Night Owls show ever taped, given its horrifying conclusion. As a voiceover by Scanners actor Michael Ironside explains at the start of the movie, “What you are about to see is the recently discovered master tape of what went to air that night, as well as previously unreleased behind-the-scenes footage.”

Cameron says recreating the look of a '70s late-night chat-fest involved "months of research and looking at old TV shows of that period" ahead of the month-long shoot in Australia. There secret weapon became production designer Otello Stolfo, who grew up designing sets for game shows and variety shows during that period.

Colin also credits cinematographer Matthew Temple for training the young camera operators to frame shots in what he calls "a very un-cinematic way."

"But it had to feel authentically like ‘70s TV," Colin notes. "It probably took us a few days, if not longer, for everyone to get totally comfortable with that style of shooting, but, when we did, the results were there on the screen. It just looked and felt so true to the time."

The attention to detail paid off. Late Night With the Devil received its world premiere at last year's SXSW Film Festival and got another boost when Stephen King tweeted a positive review of the movie, saying, "It's absolutely brilliant. I couldn't take my eyes off it."

"We can die happy men, basically," Cameron says when reminded of King's words. "I mean, wow. Floored by that."

The Cairnes' previous movie, 2016's Scare Campaign, also mined the small screen for frights with a plot about the filming of a prank series that goes awry. So which kind of TV show will next be given the horror treatment by the duo?

"The live snooker tournament that goes horribly wrong?" Colin muses.

"I think we’ll always continue to play in the horror genre, but there are other ideas that excite us as well: heist movies, adventure movies," Cameron adds.

The good news for gore fans... "There’ll always be a bit of blood spilt, I think," Colin says, "no matter what we do."

The cast of Late Night With the Devil also includes Laura Gordon, Fayssal Bazzi, Ian Bliss, Ingrid Torelli, Josh Quong Tart, and Georgina Haig. IFC Films and Shudder are releasing the film in theaters March 22, and the movie will stream on Shudder April 19.

Watch EW's exclusive teaser trailer above.

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