Photo by: IFC Films and Shudder
We were joined on the Popternative show by writers and directors Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes to discuss their new found footage horror film, Late Night with the Devil. The film was released in theaters March 22nd and will soon be available to stream on Shudder. It currently has a 97% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes and had an impressive debut at the box office earning $2.8 million in its opening weekend.
The cast includes David Dastmalchian (Oppenheimer, The Last Voyage of the Demeter), Laura Gordon (Saw V, Undertow), Ian Bliss (The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions), Ingrid Torelli (Five Bedrooms, Bloom), Fayssal Bazzi (Stateless, Shantaram), and Rhys Auteri (A Good Deed). Set on October 31st, 1977, Johnny Carson rival Jack Delroy (Dastmalchian) hosts a Halloween special of his syndicated late night talk show, Night Owls, unaware that evil is about to enter the studio and be captured on tape.
When disucssing the horror genre and coming up with an idea for their third feature film, Colin and Cameron tell us, “In a way nothing is new, but you’ve got to make it fresh. With [Late Night with the Devil], setting it on a late night talk show, we knew we had something that was unusual and different, and it was a matter of just coming up with a storyline and characters and [doing] that idea justice.”
They also touch on the idea of adding commercial breaks and other behind-the-scenes footage throughout the film: “If we’re goanna commit to a real-time telling of the story, the idea of cutting to commercials and color bars for 2 or 3 minutes would be jarring. We thought if you were invested in the characters, you will want to know what is going on back stage.”
Watch the full conversation with Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes below.
Late Night with the Devil is currently playing in theaters and will be available to stream on Shudder April 19th.
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