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This article was originally published on April 18, 2024.
We are recirculating it now thatLate Night With the Devilisstreaming on Hulu.
Quick, what do horror movies have in common with the monologues of late-night talk-show hosts?
Someone tends to get eviscerated in both, via blade, claw, or zinger.
The payoff probably wouldnt look so vaguely disappointing were it not for how effective the setup proves.
On paper, its a satisfying climax.
But the fun-house, throwback chintziness of the violence almost puts the sequence in quotation marks.
What really breaks the spell, though, is what happens next.
But to go inside Jacks head, the filmmakers have to break format.
No longer are events strictly staged through the shooting style of a 70s TV show.
The camera, sliding into exaggerated close-ups, now films from a more subjective vantage.
Jump cuts rupture time and space, shattering the real-time illusion.
you could count on one hand the found-footage horror movies that anyone could confuse for the real thing.
But in ditching that format at the end, the filmmakers effectively change the channel.
And its the audience that winds up reaching for the remote, wondering if something better is on.
