Is Late Night With The Devil Based On A True Story? (2025)

Despite its 1970s period trappings, Late Night With the Devil is clearly a horror movie and the character of Jack Delroy is not a real person. One major clue is the fact that character actor David Dastmalchian is playing the character of 1970s talk show host Jack Delroy. Dastmalchian is recognizable for his fair share of horror movies, including The Boogeyman, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and Bird Box, in addition to other roles including Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad and Piter de Vries in Dune.

Speculation about the movie began with the Late Night With the Devil trailer which seems to indicate that, despite clearly faking being a recording of a 1970s television broadcast, it could still be inspired by true events. The onscreen text at the beginning of the trailer reads "On Halloween night 1977, one live television event shocked a nation." This not only spurred interest in the movie but also raised questions about whether the events of the movie are indeed based in some truth.

Late Night With The Devil Is Not Based On A True Story

The Movie Is An Exercise In Found Footage Realism

Despite the implication of its trailer, Late Night with the Devil is not based on a true story. Instead, it is a found footage movie that uses the 1970s period setting to enhance the reality of the narrative being depicted onscreen. Jack Delroy is a fictional character, and there is no direct connection between the movie's plot and any late-night broadcast that was aired on American television throughout the 1970s.

The technique that Late Night With the Devil uses is particularly well-rendered, but it follows in the footsteps of quite a few found-footage horror movies before it. In an attempt to promote realism, some movies, like 2013's WNUF Halloween Special, have wholly recreated old television broadcasts. Others use old-fashioned or degraded filmmaking formats, especially VHS, to make them seem less like polished Hollywood productions, including The Blair Witch Project and the V/H/S franchise.

Late Night with the Devil Was Inspired by 1970s Pop Culture

The Horror Movie Draws Inspiration From Many Places

While Late Night With the Devil is not based on any true story, it does draw inspiration from a wealth of real pop culture from throughout the 1970s. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes revealed that their movie is a pastiche of a wide variety of titles, including the talk show The Don Lane Show and the movies The Exorcist, Network, and The King of Comedy. The fact that the filmmakers have put so much thought into bringing the period to life explains why the trailer for the movie is so effectively misleading.

Why Late Night With The Devils Feels Like It's Based On A True Story

The Commitment To The Authentic Feel Blurs The Lines Of Reality

Anyone who watches Late Night with the Devil can likely conclude, based on the final act of the movie, that it is not based on a true story. However, the film achieves its goal of convincingly recreating the feel of older late-night talk shows which gives it the feeling of authenticity, even if there are supernatural elements included later in the movie. Drawing inspiration from real late-night shows has the desired effect as the set and the world immediately feel lived-in and believable which is essential for the premise.

The performances are also a big part of accomplishing that feeling of being real with the actors required to do a very specific job in these roles. Despite the format feeling like it limits the characters to one-dimensional late-night personalities, they are actually layered. David Dastmalchian is a prime example of this in the lead role as he is playing someone who puts on an on-screen persona which is somewhat fraudulent but also has to react like a real person when things start getting stranger. Late Night with the Devil's black and white moments highlight these layers.

Audiences love to be tricked by movies like this and Late Night with the Devil leans into this feeling. Just like The Blair Witch Project stirred up buzz with viral marketing suggesting this was a true story, Late Night with the Devil's marketing suggested the same. While there is so much telling the audience that this could not possibly be true, it is a tantalizing idea that makes them want to believe that it might be.

Source: THR