Lifestyle

Late Night With the Devil’s Ending, Explained

30 March 2024
- 09:41 WIB

Penulis : rls/epr

The following contains spoilers for Late Night with the Devil, now playing in theaters.

As the horror movie genre continues to evolve, it’s a Golden Age for exorcism and demonic possession movies again. While The Exorcist: Believer didn’t hit the mark, movies like The Pope’s Exorcist, Evil Dead Rise and Insidious: Red Door helped keep the momentum going. It seems that even The First Omen is going to continue the trend of demon-centric movies.

Also continuing the demon-centric horror movie trend is Late Night with the Devil, which places female demons at the forefront of a talk show, where David Dastmalchian plays Jack Delroy. He’s a host seeking to boost ratings for his Night Owls program, not realizing that, in his desperation, he is going to unleash hell. This leads to a terrifying ending that plays on the idea of ego, toxic masculinity and the price many people are willing to pay for fame.

Late Night with the Devil’s Demonic Conversation Goes Awry

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In the events of Late Night with the Devil, Jack has an array of guests on during Halloween. He needs to boost ratings because his contract is winding down. The show hasn’t been performing well, so he relies on shock factor and exploitation to become a bigger draw. After the first guest communicates with spirits from the other side, Jack hides that the psychic medium, Christou, died en route to the hospital after vomiting his life out. Jack doesn’t see it as a red flag, even though it is a sign that the medium is connected to something diabolical.

Some of Jack’s staff sense this macabre presence around, including his assistant, Gus. However, a beleaguered Jack continues to move forward, using another gimmick: that the paranormal debunker, Carmichael, will offer $500,000 to any subject on the stage whose act is real. This results in June (a parapsychologist) bringing young Lilly up to the floor. Lilly was rescued from a Satanic cult a while back after they tried to bring forth the demon, Abraxas. She was the only survivor, which led to June offering her love and becoming a mother-figure.

Unfortunately, while June begs Jack to cancel her summoning the demonic persona inside Lilly, Jack asserts his influence and power. He booked them a while back, dead certain this would help catapult him past Johnny Carson and other rivals in this nostalgic 1976 period. It’s even hinted that Jack and June are in an affair, which culminates in June strapping Lilly to a chair and calling the demon out to chat. This entity — Mr. Wriggles — keeps harassing Jack. The girl’s body contorts, her eyes change color, and her voice has a Satanic edge to it. The host chalks it off as somewhat playful, but things get horrific when the chair starts to levitate.

Lights flicker similarly to other scenes found in many demonic possession movies. After Lilly calms down and suppresses Wriggles, Carmichael keeps taunting the teenager. It results in the panel rolling back footage to see what is authentic, revealing Jack’s dead wife Madeleine as a specter next to him. At this point, Lilly transforms into a cosmic entity, using her powers to snap Gus’ neck, lift June up and slit her throat with her demon-repressing necklace. She then roasts Carmichael alive. It sends the staff and the audience running for dear life, while panic sets in on Jack. His reactions affirm why Dastmalchian is a modern horror icon.

Late Night with the Devil Reveals Jack’s Dark Secret

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Madeleine’s appearance in Late Night with the Devil suggests Jack has been hiding a macabre secret. The opening narration confirmed he was part of a men’s club called The Grove. They were filled with elites who went out into the woods to perform arcane rituals. This left fans thinking these were drugs and sex parties. But there was some occult symbolism abound, nodding to properties like The Wicker Man and Midsommar. The full truth emerges when Jack tries to flee the carnage, only for the audience to peer into his mind.

Jack ends up reliving his worst nightmares, including a cancer-stricken Madeleine on her deathbed. Many wondered how she could have gotten lung cancer if she had never smoked. It is revealed that Jack brokered a deal to offer her soul so that he could become popular in his ’70s talk show from Hell. He never thought it would come true, however. This explains why he fled Hollywood for a bit: He felt guilty, which ties into Christou initially sensing Madeleine’s spirit. She experienced a mortifying invasion of privacy, reminding people how celebrities objectify women. Jack saw Madeleine as a ticket to fame and glory. Even after all that sacrifice, he still couldn’t top the charts. All this time, Jack had been in denial about being the villain of the story. He has one way of assuaging his guilt, however.

Madeleine begs him to use the demonic dagger from the Abraxas cult that June brought. Once he kills her in this mindscape, her spirit will be at peace. She can move on to the afterlife after this honest session. Jack does as he’s told, thinking he has ended her suffering and put her out of her misery. However, the movie ends with him waking up to reality: he stabbed Lilly to death. Jack is delirious as sirens blare, knowing his wife has gotten revenge by framing him. Late Night with the Devil plays on dark humor, but this slice of footage acts as the smoking gun — evidence to paint the self-serving Jack as a murderer. This is punishment for robbing women of their agency; a theme being tackled at present by Sidney Sweeney’s Immaculate.

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A big part of Late Night with the Devil plays on whether the viewers’ perspectives are real. Carmichael hypnotized Gus and had everyone — Gus included — thinking he had to rip worms out of his skin. Carmichael was trying to show the audience that June did the same, putting everyone under a spell, with this charm turning into mass hysteria. June did do a book — Conversations With the Devil — and would know the keywords to build this facade. She also had the method down, as she put Lilly to sleep for Wriggles to come out to chat.

Vy rolling back the footage, however, everyone sees that Lilly was indeed possessed. As for why Madeleine would use Lilly as a vessel, that connects to The Grove. This men’s cult actually had links to the Abraxas cult, thus Jack was indirectly cursing Lilly along the way by being part of the same network. The Grove ruined Madeleine’s life, while the Abraxas cult doomed Lilly by keeping her captive and leaving her to June to used as her a test subject. In that sense, June is a diluted version of Jack. He steals stories in the name of ratings and pop culture, but June did so in the name of science. Why else would she publish material and use the child as content?

Given the situation was sensitive, it does feel like an anxious, nervous June wanted fame. Ultimately, there is only one winner here: Madeleine. Her vicious nature keeps Lilly as an innocent victim, killed by the selfish anchor of the plot. In the end, Late Night with the Devil’s horror isn’t primarily about demons or humans as vessels, or paranormal skepticism. It is about a woman’s raw, primal instinct to make a misogynist pay for his sins, no matter the collateral damage.

Late Night with Devil is now playing in theaters.