David Dastmalchian

Late Night with the Devil

29/03/24

Cineworld, Edinburgh

The majority of horror movies have recently settled into a predictable format – an unfolding sequence of jump-scares and body shocks with an open-ended conclusion that allows for the inevitable sequel. Late Night with the Devil comes as a reinvigorating breath of foul air to the genre. Written and directed by Australian brothers Cameron and Colin Cairnes (though the setting couldn’t be more convincingly American), the film is entirely set in a TV studio, a recording of a 1977 Halloween special, hosted by struggling chat show star, Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian).

We’re first given a verité-style catch up on the man’s career: his slow steady rise to fame in the 60s, when he briefly challenged Johnny Carson for the top spot, and the rumours that his success is due to his membership of a mysterious cabal of wealthy entertainers and businessmen. But more recently his ratings have begun to slump, culminating in an awkward appearance by his wife, Madeline, on the show just weeks before her death from lung cancer. Subsequently, Delroy has been off screen for quite some time but now he’s back – and it quickly becomes clear that there’s a lot riding on tonight’s appearance.

And then we’re told that was his final show.

Delroy’s guests are revealed one by one. There’s ‘psychic’ Christou (Faysal Bazzi), who offers the usual ‘I’m getting a message from somebody beginning with D’ patter. There’s James Randi-style sceptic Carmichael (Ian Bliss), currently offering half a million dollars to anyone who can offer convincing proof of the supernatural. And there are the headliners, parapsychologist June (Laura Gordon) and her teenage ward, Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), whose jaunty, ultra-polite confidence is unsettling to say the very least. June believes that Lilly is possessed by a demon and has recently published a book about her conversations with the creature within. Pushing for more viewers, Delroy suggests that June might like to invite the demon into the studio for an interview. What could possibly go wrong?

The show is interspersed with commercial breaks, where a handheld camera follows Delroy around the building, filming his off-screen conversations with his producer (this is perhaps the one element that doesn’t entirely convince; who is filming these sequences and why?) but, suffice to say, as the evening proceeds, things begin to go wrong, initially in small ways but growing ever more disruptive, ever more sinister.

Dastmalchian captures his character perfectly, allowing us glimpses of the paranoia that lurks behind that smooth, unruffled exterior. I also like Rhys Auteri’s performance as his ever-smiling co-presenter, Gus, who clearly doesn’t relish the new direction in which the show is heading, but has to keep supplying the deadpan jokes until the bitter end, even when he’s provoked into interacting with the thing he hates most. Late Night with the Devil is also occasionally very funny, which is something of an unexpected bonus. The nuances of an American chat show are effectively captured – the eye rolls, the in-jokes, the relentless cheerfulness in the face of adversity. In places I find myself laughing out loud at the sheer audacity of it all and then, just as suddenly, I’m not laughing any more.

In its final stretches, the film hurtles headlong into bone-wrenching, head-exploding madness and I have no option but to strap in and go with it. It’s been quite a while since I have so thoroughly enjoyed a horror film and I look forward to whatever the Cairnes brothers have hidden up their respective sleeves for their next offering. Meanwhile, Late Night with the Devil serves as a perfect introduction to their evident skills.

4.8 stars

Philip Caveney

The Boogeyman

04/06/23

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Horror movie The Boogeyman is one huge unsubtle metaphor – but it’s none the worse for it. The eponymous villain represents negative emotions – sorrow, misery, rage, etc. – and he needs dealing with before he kills you.

Sisters Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) certainly know all about negative emotions. It’s only a month since their mother was killed in a car crash, and they’re struggling to adapt. Sawyer can’t sleep until her dad, Will Harper (Chris Messina), has checked her closet for monsters, and even then she needs her ball lamp next to her. Sadie is trying to put on a brave face, but her school friends aren’t really there for her. Meanwhile Will – a therapist, no less – completely refuses to talk about their mom at all.

When Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian) shows up at Will’s home office one day, he brings more than his sadness with him. His children have been killed by a mysterious boogeyman, he says, but the police suspect Lester has murdered them himself. He’s frantic with grief and wants Will’s help to cope. Instead, the insidious monster that’s following him turns its attention to the Harper family and begins to wreak havoc…

Based on a short story by Stephen King and directed by Rob Savage, The Boogeyman builds suspense well. The family dynamics are convincingly drawn, and the just-out-of-sight boogeyman feels genuinely scary (as ever, he’s a little less frightening once made corporeal).

There are a few plot holes that let the film down overall. Lester’s widow, Rita (Marin Ireland), for example, seems to be surviving on candlelight and bullets. No one’s eaten in that kitchen for some time, that’s for sure, and why haven’t the neighbours reported all the gun shots? If the police think Lester’s a killer, why isn’t he in custody? And, if the monster can only get you in the dark, why does no one ever turn on a room’s main light?

All in all, this is a fun little film. It doesn’t bear much scrutiny, but it assuredly entertains.

3.5 stars

Susan Singfield

The Suicide Squad

03/08/21

Cineworld

DC’s increasingly desperate attempts to rival the success of The Marvel Universe seem to be exemplified by this muddled and over-inflated offering from James Gunn. Not to be confused with David Ayers Suicide Squad, this is The Suicide Squad, but, much like its predecessor, it suffers from a bad case of #toomanysuperheroes. While it’s surely a more successful attempt to put those titular antiheroes onscreen, it still feels overlong, overcomplicated and, quite possibly, just over.

It starts well enough with the ruthless Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, playing it straight) recruiting convicted hitman Savant (Michael Rooker) for a dangerous mission. She offers him an opportunity to reduce his prison sentence if he manages to survive, but adds the pesky complication that, if he tries to bail, a device in his head will explode. We then meet the rest of the team, one of whom we know from the first film and the rest of whom seem expendable. The familiar face belongs to Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and it soon becomes clear that his team only exists to serve as a distraction, while the real squad, led by Bloodsport (Idris Elba), gets on with the actual mission. He’s joined by another character we’ve met before, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), and by some very odd newbies, including Peacemaker (John Cena), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), King Shark (a man with a shark’s head voiced by Sylvester Stallone) and Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) who… well, suffice to say if you suffer from a fear of rodents, this film may not be for you.

There follow two hours and twelve minutes of fights, explosions, stunts and some explicitly bloody dismemberment, sailing very close to the wind considering the film’s 15 certificate. We’re treated to several shots of King Shark eating his opponents, which is probably meant to be comical, but is way too graphic for comfort. There’s also a sort of plot here, though it’s frankly bananas. The squad are sent to a South American country, where – in a ‘secret’ laboratory – scientists, under the supervision of Thinker (Peter Capaldi), are rearing a… giant starfish called Starro the Conqueror… yes, I know, at times it feels like a hyperactive six-year-old wrote the screenplay.

Like many of these big budget spectaculars, it’s a game of diminishing returns. There are too many punch ups, too many silly one-liners and too long a running time. Around the hour and a half mark, I’m starting to glance at my watch. Robbie’s Harley Quinn is by the far the best character, and she gets the film’s finest moment, an extended sequence where she escapes from prison to the tune of Just a Gigalo, the copious blood spatter replaced by flurries of animated flowers. It’s delightful and, if the rest of it were up to this standard, this would be a more positive review.

As it stands, it’s hard to be enthusiastic. A post-credits sequence which appears to offer a spin-off featuring one of the story’s less likeable characters is hardly an alluring prospect. Maybe I’ll give that one a miss.

3.4 stars

Philip Caveney