Warning! Contains major spoilers for Late Night with the Devil.
The 1970s-set found-footage movie Late Night with the Devil introduces possession horror to late-night television, and chronicles a slow-burn tale of terror that ends in horrifying fashion. Written and directed by brothers Cameron and Colin Cairnes, Late Night with the Devil stars David Dastmalchian as a 1970s late night talk show host who, in an effort to compete with Johnny Carson, invites a demonically-possessed young girl onto a special occult-themed episode of his show. Jack’s tragic backstory is revealed over the course of the movie, and it explains his desperation for success.
Despite a steadily-mounting series of eerie experiences that already resulted in one performer’s death, Jack Delroy insists on pressing forward with an on-camera demonic possession of the young girl, Lilly, and the subsequent rebuttal from the skeptic, Carmichael the Conjurer. The demon quickly takes full control of his host, and kills everyone on stage in gruesome fashion before the perspective takes the audience into Jack’s tormented memories, a trip which results in him stabbing Lilly to death. The Stephen King-approved Late Night with the Devil intentionally blurs the line between reality and fantasy at the end to deliver its central message.
Lily refers to the demon that is inside her as “Mr. Wriggles”, which is derived from the fact that he “wriggles” into her body when he possesses her. While the demon’s actual name is never revealed, he’s referred to as potentially a subordinate of the more powerful demon Abraxas, which was the malignant entity that Szandor D’Abo and his cult worshiped. When the cult committed mass suicide by burning down their place of worship, Lily was possessed by Mr. Wriggles. It’s not outright stated, but it’s implied that his possession is the reason Lily was the only survivor of the fire.
While he may be a subordinate of Abraxas, it’s Mr. Wriggles who is responsible for the chaos on Jack Delroy’s show. Mr. Wriggles mentions (through Lily’s body) that he has encountered Jack before, indicating he may have influenced the show’s proceedings somehow. It’s his presence that Christou feels as he conducts his readings, and he is the reason Christou falls ill and vomits. When Lily’s head splits open at the climax, the audience sees Mr. Wriggles’ true form revealed; not as a stereotypical horned creature, but as a fiery being of light that bursts out of his host.
Throughout Late Night with the Devil, Jack Delroy’s backstory is slowly revealed, largely in a 1970s-styled voiceover and montage at the beginning of the movie, with further details coming over the course of the episode’s footage that makes up the movie. He’s portrayed as a tragic figure due to the unexpected loss of his wife, who passed away rather recently due to lung cancer despite having never smoked. The episode’s conclusion goes off the rails when Jack insists that they slow down footage of the demonic possession, revealing a frame with Jack’s dead wife standing over his shoulder.
That moment causes the demon within Lilly to take full control, and it electrocutes the young girl until her face burns away to reveal the demon’s true form. In short order, it kills Jack’s assistant Gus by turning his head backwards, burns Carmichael the Conjurer in gory fashion, and strangles Dr. Ross-Mitchell by her own necklace, all using only its mind. As Jack surveys the carnage, the found-footage style is dropped and the audience steps into Jack’s unraveling mind.
Jack’s history is explored through a series of visions that include his time with a “men’s club” that the demon mentioned in its on-screen possession of Lilly, several key moments in his career, and finally, an encounter with his wife on her deathbed. She tells Jack that she was the price he had to pay for his successful career, and tells him that he needs to kill her. In the vision he stabs her, and then is suddenly transported back to the studio, where he is holding Lilly in the same fashion, having just stabbed her to death.
The visions revealed that the men’s club Jack belonged to, referred to as The Grove, had connections to the Satanic church that Lilly was rescued from. That explains why the demon that possessed Lilly knows Jack: they had previously “met” at one of the ceremonies. The Grove is described as having a number of wealthy and powerful members, and it’s implied that they owe their success to worshiping the devil and conducting sacrifices.
While Jack might have thought he was stabbing his wife as a final act of mercy as his mind broke, he was actually stabbing Lilly, ending the demon’s control over the young girl and the TV set of Night Owls. It’s representative of the uncertainty of reality surrounding the entire movie; it’s tough to parse out which instances involve Jack playing up his discomfort for the cameras and which show him genuinely afraid. Jack killing Lilly is symbolic of the concept of illusions being dropped, whether it’s the illusion of success, or of the reality depicted on television.
Jack stabbing Lilly also symbolized how his actions impacted others. Jack attempted to keep his past activities with The Grove a relative secret, but it’s heavily implied that they may have had a hand in his success. Jack’s pursuit of alternative means to success ultimately led to others suffering. Jack may not have been the person to kill Christou, June, Gus, or Carmichael, but he had a hand in their deaths the same as he had a literal hand in Lilly’s.
One of the most memorable scenes of the movie is Carmichael’s “hypnotism” of not only Gus, but the entire audience–both the one in the studio and the audience watching the movie. Carmichael is able to convince everyone, including Gus, that his body was infested with worms, and that Gus should rip open his own stomach to get rid of them. With the power of suggestion, he makes everyone see what he wants them to see, with only the actual footage of Gus’ hypnosis acting as proof that what the audience had “seen” was not real.
At its core, Late Night with the Devil is an exploration of how we perceive reality. The 1970s setting for the movie is important in this regard, as the 1970s and 1980s saw the rise of cults, serial killers and the so-called “Satanic panic” that gripped the nation. Suddenly the world seemed far more evil, but was it because of the Devil himself or because of wicked men? Jack’s occult-themed episode features multiple practices that blur the lines between reality, and in doing so blur the lines between good and evil based on their intentions.
Late Night with the Devil forces the audience to ask if Christou is helping people find peace as a psychic medium, or is he manipulating people stricken by grief for financial gain? Is Dr. Ross-Mitchell caring for a girl desperately in need of help, or is she exploiting a child to sell a book? Is Jack a good man who has been struck by tragedy, or is he so desperate for success that he would sacrifice anything to achieve it? Late Night with the Devil ultimately answers these questions in grisly fashion.
Fayssal Bazzi’s character Christou is one of the acts that Jack arranged for his supernaturally-themed show, and as a medium his act was among those that Carmichael aimed to discredit. While his first reading in the crowd seemed easily disprovable as a typical charlatan’s performance rather than legitimate communication with the dead. However, when Christou began to experience pain from an unknown source, it became clear that something else was responsible: the “presence” that Christou felt on the set.
That entity was the aforementioned Mr. Wriggles, whose torment of Christou indicated he may have had legitimately heightened psychic connections. The alternative is that Mr. Wriggles tormented him specifically because of his fraudulent claims, although it’s never specified what the real cause is. Mr. Wriggles continued to torture Christou until he vomited an unidentified black goo, which is a common trope in exorcism movies. He is taken away in an ambulance as his condition worsens, and Jack later learns that he actually died due to the trauma. Christou was Mr. Wriggles’ first victim of the night.
There are plenty of hints that Jack’s wife did not tragically die from an unforeseen illness out of mere chance before it’s made clear by the ending of Late Night with the Devil. She was diagnosed with lung cancer despite having never smoked and being healthy otherwise. But rather than it being a sad twist of fate, it’s made clear that her illness and death was the price that Jack paid to be a successful TV host.
In fact, the highest-rated episode of his show was the one in which his wife Madeleine joined him on the set to discuss her illness and his support. It’s the perfect metaphor for how directly her illness contributed to Jack’s success, and it points a bony finger directly at Jack to anyone paying attention. Madeleine’s final appearance in Jack’s visions at the end of Late Night with the Devil confirms his involvement outright.
Late Night with the Devil provides some backstory for Lilly as a guest on the show, although some pieces need to be put together due to the found footage nature of the movie. Lilly was rescued as the only survivor of a Satanic cult that burned to death in a massive house fire, and found her way into the care of Dr. June Ross-Mitchell, who understood that she was possessed by a demon. The Satanic cult she was rescued from had some level of connection to The Grove, the men’s club that Jack belonged to.
In fact, it’s possible that they are one and the same. The demon, who Lilly refers to as “Mr. Wriggles”, speaks directly to Jack in the first on-screen encounter that Dr. Ross-Mitchell sets up. It recognizes him from a time among the “tall trees”, and in Jack’s final vision he is seen drinking something surrounded by costumed figures in what is clearly some sort of ritual. The Grove is described as being a club for famous or powerful individuals, and even if it’s not explicitly said, it’s made clear that they owe their success to the rituals of the club.