MovieChat Forums > Late Night with the Devil (2024) Discussion > pretty captivating until the last 20 min...

pretty captivating until the last 20 minutes

posted 7 months ago by maximmm (3338)
4 replies | jump to latest

The last 15 minutes is where it went sour - cheaper sfx started to make themselves known - the big reveal was basically BS - sfx played a big part in making it all look cheap, but I also feel like script was also lacking.

8/10 for the first 75 minutes and 5/10 for the final 15.
Still - those first 75 minutes are worth watching - and it all really does make you want to see it till the end just to figure out wtf was going on.

Final score - 6/10 - could have been much better if the final 15 minutes were better, not only in terms of sfx but also in terms of the script.

[–] [deleted] 5 months ago

Agreed. The end was terrible.

[–] CalvinJarrett (451) 3 days ago

I agree with you maximmm. The entire 'Jack engaging with the hooded Grove cult' angle should have been eliminated. They should have made Jack's relationship with June more explicit and provided evidence that the affair began while his wife was still alive. That would explain Madeline's haunting him through Lily/Abraxis. The writer(s) seemed hellbent to pay homage to Rosemary's Baby, and they made it so Jack makes a deal with the devil to better his career/fame at the expense of his wife (like the John Cassavetes character in the former film). To me, that was biting off more than they could chew and it made for a muddled, unsatisfying ending. It was almost like that movie was saying, "Oh yeah? You think that was something. Just stay tuned another 12 minutes; we're really going to knock your socks off." Now that I wrote that I realize maybe the movie was just that smart! Maybe they were satirizing the formula of late night television where the host promises more and more excitement if you just make it through the commercial break - even when the audience has already seen the most interesting part(s)?

[–] jk90us (7192) 3 days ago

Agreed.

I also wish they’d shot it like an actual film and didn’t try to emulate a live TV broadcast.

It added nothing to the movie.

[–] CalvinJarrett (451) 3 days ago

I think it was intentional, but I had a very hard time hearing the dialogue between the actors during the black-and-white commercial breaks. Otherwise, I enjoyed the TV broadcast style they chose. I just wish they ended it when the show ended (and the live audience departed) and shit-canned the tacked-on ending-after-the-ending.