Welcome to Knockout Horror. We just got done reviewing the fantastic Late Night With The Devil and, obviously, really enjoyed it. Today we are bringing you a Late Night With The Devil Ending Explained article to clue you in on some of the less obvious moments and to clear up that strange ending.
What’s more, we are going to do it in under 1600 words, not including this intro and the outro. That’s five or so minutes of reading time which I am sure most people can spare, right? Obviously, if you are here and haven’t watched Late Night With The Devil yet. You should probably exit stage left as this article contains spoilers. Read our review of Late Night With The Devil, check out the movie and then come back here. Without further ado, let’s go.
A Quick Summary
Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) is a 70’s late night talk show presenter. His show, Night Owls, is placed up against the hugely popular Tonight Show With Johnny Carson and is being destroyed in the ratings weekly.
Jack Delroy visits a cult like organisation of wealthy individuals in California at a place known as The Grove. One such visit took place in 1969. 7 years later, Delroy’s wife dies from lung cancer, despite never having smoked. Delroy takes a break, only to return a few weeks later.
Determined to beat Johnny Carson, Delroy resorts to increasingly more risky tactics. Featuring wild guests and more outlandish topics. Most resulting in either embarrassment for Delroy or, simply, failure.
In another attempt to gain viewers, he decides to host a Halloween special. This special takes place on Monday the 31st of October, 1977. Right at the start of sweeps week. A period where television companies attempt to draw in extra viewers to increase advertising rates for the following year.
A Night to Remember
The Halloween special will feature guests with supernatural abilities. A psychic called Christou (Fayssal Bazzi). A parapsychologist author called June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and a girl called Lilly (Ingrid Torelli) who is, supposedly, possessed by a demon. The show also includes former illusionist, turned paranormal debunker, Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss). Carmichael offers a $100,000 to anyone who can withstand his scientific scrutinising of their supposed abilities.
The psychic, Christou, is first up and clearly uses his cold reading techniques to trick two women in the audience. Cold reading is something used by “so called” psychics to worm information out of unsuspecting victims. Basically using trickery and observation to force the person to feed them information that will allow them to act as if they are in contact with a deceased loved one.
After the performance, Christou suddenly appears to be in tremendous pain. He claims he is receiving a message from a person named Minnie for an unmarried man wearing a wedding ring. Christou’s nose bleeds and he looks distraught. Haig hits the stage and is unimpressed by Christou’s performance. Claiming he clearly used cold reading techniques.
Doubtful, Delroy chimes in declaring that he believes Christou as the name Minnie was the name he used for his late wife and he is the unmarried man wearing a wedding ring. Carmichael still refutes the evidence and Christou storms off before collapsing and vomiting black liquid at Carmichael. While Christou is taken off stage, Carmichael interviews the women from the audience. Finding out that Christou’s assistant had gathered information from them before the show. Clearly proving that he was not psychic.
From Bad to Worse
Despite the graphic scenes, Delroy wants to carry on because of the ratings boost. The show goes on and next out is parapsychologist June with her subject Lilly. Lilly was part of a satanic cult lead by Szandor D’Abo. The group worshipped the demon Abraxas but was wiped out as the result of a mass suicide. Lilly was the only survivor and is now, supposedly, possessed by a demon known as Mr Wriggles.
Thinking it would be huge for ratings, Delroy convinces June to conjure the demon and Lilly enthusiastically agrees. The show heads to a commercial break where we learn that Christou died on his way to the hospital due to a massive haemorrhage.
When the show returns, June conjures the demon. The demon talks and refers specifically to Jack Delroy. claiming to have met him once “under the tall trees”. The demon also alludes to June and Delroy having a romantic relationship and that Delroy wanted his wife to die so that he could be with June.
When June finally manages to subdue the demon. Carmichael claims that it was all trickery and he can prove it. Carmichael asks for a volunteer; the show’s maestro Gus. He talks to Gus about his fear of worms. Only for Gus to suddenly notice a hole in his neck with worms spilling out. Feeling warm, Gus takes off his shirt to see worms under his skin. He rips open his stomach and, horrifyingly, worms pour out.
A Shocking Conclusion
Carmichael informs everyone that he actually hypnotised, not only Gus, but the entire viewing audience and people in attendance. Everything they just watched was trickery. He can prove it by playing back the camera footage. When doing so, it is clear that the events played out completely differently to how everyone remembered it. Carmichael claims that June did the same thing to convince everyone in the room that Lily was possessed.
June denies this and Lilly requests that they watch the footage back to prove it. They do just that and it is clear that Lilly was actually possessed; the cameras saw exactly what everyone else saw. Rolling back the footage, Delroy spots his late wife in the background of the image with her hand on his shoulder. Carmichael is convinced that Delroy has had his studio technicians alter the footage and that this is all a scam to increase ratings.
Lilly suddenly levitates again, her head splits open. She kills Gus who was trying to subdue the demon with his crucifix, ala The Exorcist – “The power of Christ compels you”. She then kills June by slitting her throat and sets Carmichael on fire as he attempts to control the demon.
Lilly then transports Jack Delroy to a dimension inside his own mind where he sees horrifying moments from his past. He suddenly wakes, having stabbed Lilly to death as police can be heard in the background. The broadcast ends with the words “So it be done” flickering in the bottom corner. A phrase earlier uttered by the cult leader responsible for kidnapping Lilly, Szandor D’Abo.
So What Happened?
This final part is, obviously, the thing that is likely to confuse some. Jack Delroy hallucinates and sees moments from his failing show’s past. Emphasising the dire situation he was in. He didn’t want the show to be cancelled but everything he tried to do failed. The show was not getting more popular.
Think back to earlier in the movie and the rumours of Delroy being part of a cult like group of influential individuals in California. It turns out, that Jack Delroy, while with the organisation at the Grove in 1969, made a Faustian bargain with a demon. Exchanging the life of his wife for success on his television show.
Remember the demon saying to Delroy “we met under the tall trees”? They met when he made the deal at the Grove. 7 Years later, as dictated by some literature, the demon came to collect his price meaning Delroy’s wife passed away. Remember how she died from lung cancer despite never smoking?
The Grove is supposed to be a version of the real life Bohemian Grove. An actual rich men’s club attended by celebrities, business men and even presidents. A group that performs occult like rituals, burns effigies and worships Owls. A group that has also been said to have Satanic links. Note the name of Jack Delroy’s show, Night Owls, a reference to the Bohemian Grove mascot, of sorts.
The Monkey’s Paw
Like most Faustian bargains; the thing given up is often worth far more than what you get in return. Leaving Delroy haunted by what he did as he was responsible for his wife’s death. Albeit in a roundabout way.
Perhaps he only realised how much he loved her once the demon came to collect. This regret and guilt is represented in the stabbing of his ailing wife through the heart. Something that never actually happened but simply acts as a metaphor for the shame he feels. In his deluded state, he did stab Lilly, though.
His show never eclipsed Johnny Carson’s, it just kept afloat. Late Night with the Devil acts as a monkey’s paw tale. As the fame and notoriety that Jack Delroy got came from him stabbing Lilly to death on live television. He got his wish, but not in the way he thought he would. And he sacrificed his wife to get it. Everyone knows his name now but it is as the murderer of a teenage girl, not as the host of the best talk show in the country
70’s References
Late Night With The Devil is packed full of 70’s references. The most prominent of which is the character Carmichael Haig. He is clearly based on James Randi. A Canadian-American magician turned sceptic. Randi spent his later life challenging supposed psychics, mediums, and other people claiming to have supernatural abilities.
Some of his most famous debunking moments involved self proclaimed psychic Uri Gellar and religious faith healer Peter Popoff. Randi started the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge where he would offer the prize to anyone who could prove supernatural ability under scientific testing. To this day, nobody has ever won the money but plenty have proved themselves to be charlatans, ruining their careers in the process, trying.
Funnily enough, Randi was a regular on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, the show referenced frequently as a competitor to the fictional Night Owls. Carson, himself, was a magician and enlisted the help of Randi as he was sceptical of Gellar’s, and others, claimed abilities.
There are plenty of other references too. Namely to the aforementioned Bohemian Grove, the Waco Texas compound siege, the movie The Exorcist, The Church of Satan and its leader Anton Szandor LaVey, the Amityville Haunting, Lorraine and Ed Warren, the Patty Hearst brainwashing organisation the Symbionese Liberation Army, the television network ABC and more.
Thanks for Reading
That is Late Night with the Devil’s ending explained in under 1,600 words *cough* not including the intro or this outro. Awesome movie with such a genuine recreation of 70’s entertainment. I highly recommend that you all check out James Randi’s psychic debunkings on YouTube. It is seriously entertaining content and way funnier than it should be, at times. The guy was simply incredible, even more so than Carmichael Haig in this movie.
As I always say, thanks for spending your time here. Google doesn’t like me much anymore so these articles get way less traction. It’s not all bad, though, as Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo still like me. You can stick around and take a look at some horror movie lists or some more reviews if you like. It’s tough sledding as a small horror content creator so I appreciate every one of you for spending your time on Knockout Horror. It means the world to me as all I want to do is chat horror. Take care and I will, hopefully, see you soon.