devil beneath movie review

Devil Beneath

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Dan Ewing (Nick) Tim Pocock (Tristan) Sophie Don (Anya) Jessica Green (Rebecca) Ben Chisholm (BJ) Emily Joy (Kate) James Straiton (Jason) Felix Williamson (Mr. Richards) John Reynolds (Sam) Cole Elliott (Clyde)

Luke Sparke

Two estranged brothers come together and discover old family secrets after inheriting their grandfather's property. As their friends start to go missing, they fear they are being stalked by a creature lurking in the shadows.

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Horror Movie Review: Devil Beneath (2023)

Combining Australian aboriginal mythology with modern family problems and sprinkling eco-centric touches throughout, Devil Beneath comes from writer/director Luke Sparke.

It was actually released as Red Billabong in 2016 but has since been edited down (around 20-odd minutes cut) and given a fresh score. Things that actually work in its favour as even as an hour and half, Devil Beneath has its slow moments.

Two brothers; Tristan (Tim Pocock) and Nick (Dan Ewing) have reunited at their late grandfather’s farm following the arrival of an important letter. One that needs to be discussed in person apparently. You see, after the death of their grandfather and walkout of their stepfather, Nick left for the big city and Tristan stayed to look after the farm. That has made him bitter towards Nick, especially as their grandfather had wanted them to return the land to the local aboriginals.

Now, Tristan has received a big money offer from a developer and needs Nick to agree to sell it. Something he isn’t sure is a good idea, which causes even more conflict between them. Then, along comes some of Tristan’s friends to party. A group that includes a local drug dealer and massive douche called BJ (Ben Chisholm) and Nick’s ex-girlfriend Anya (Sophie Don). All to cause even more problems but also set off a chain of events that will reveal the existence of mythical monster and the unscrupulous plans of the developer who wants the land.

Heavily focused on the drama between the brothers, the exes, and the local aboriginals, as a monster movie, Devil Beneath struggles to find its footing. Even with its trimmed down time, there’s still a lot of character stuff to wade through. Which wouldn’t be a problem if it was anything particularly interesting, and it’s not. It’s actually cliché heavy, with a lot of easy to predict beats, and some iffy acting here and there.

The two brothers have a believable dynamic and some chemistry but they speak in ways that don’t always feel very natural. Something that is made worse when the additional characters come along. The scenes with Nick and Anya are some of the worst in the entire movie and it’s so boringly predictable that they would find their spark again once their lives are put in danger.

Speaking of which, the monster in this movie is imaginative but has abilities that can be a bit confusing. The CGI isn’t always the best, but for the most part, it holds up nicely.

Near the end there are some strong action sequences that does get the heart racing nicely. The problem with it, is that it’s not the focal point of the movie for most of its runtime and when it does become it, the story starts to really feel disjointed.

The overall end result is something that neither thrills or chills. It’s not a terrible monster movie but it’s not a great one either.

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Devil Beneath (2023)

• The Final Score - 5/10 5/10

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‘Devil Beneath’ – Australian Giant Monster Movie Released in the United States Today [Trailer]

From the director of Occupation Rainfall comes the brand new giant monster movie Devil Beneath , an Australian feature that was released in the US by Vertical Entertainment today.

Watch the official Devil Beneath trailer below for a peek at the film’s super-sized monster. It’s a bit hard to see, but it looks pretty cool and it’s certainly massive in size and scale!

You can watch the film on Digital outlets now.

In director Luke Sparke ‘s movie, “Two estranged brothers come together and discover old family secrets after inheriting their grandfather’s property. As their friends start to go missing, they fear they are being stalked by a creature lurking in the shadows.”

Dan Ewing, Tim Pocock, Jessica Green, Sophie Don, Ben Chisholm, Alex Becconsall, Damien Bryson, Philippe Deseck, Col Elliott, Gregory J. Fryer, Yutaka Izumihara, Emily Joy, Selina Kadell, John Reynolds, John Sparke, James Straiton , and Felix Williamson star.

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

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Devil Beneath Reviews

No All Critics reviews for Devil Beneath.

Devil Beneath (2023)

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Devil Beneath streaming: where to watch online?

Currently you are able to watch "Devil Beneath" streaming on Hoopla or for free with ads on The Roku Channel. It is also possible to rent "Devil Beneath" on Amazon Video, Vudu, Microsoft Store, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube online and to download it on Amazon Video, Vudu, Microsoft Store, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube.

Two estranged brothers come together and discover old family secrets after inheriting their grandfather's property. As their friends start to go missing, they fear they are being stalked by a creature lurking in the shadows.

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‘Devil Beneath’ VOD Review

Stars: Tim Pocock, Dan Ewing, Ben Chisholm, Sophie Don, Felix Williamson, John Reynolds | Written and Directed by Luke Sparke

I was surprised that Devil Beneath managed to stealthily fly under my radar, I’m a fan of both monster movies and of writer/director Luke Sparke ( Occupation, Occupation: Rainfall ). It took me about five minutes to realize why I hadn’t heard anything about it, it’s not a new movie.

Devil Beneath is Sparke’s first feature Red Billabong , which he shot in 2016, edited down from an hour and fifty-three minutes to an hour and a half and given a new score. While I was disappointed that it wasn’t a new film, I had been meaning to rewatch Red Billabong since the Occupation films were released but never got around to it. And while I remembered liking it, I also remembered it being a bit longer than it needed to be, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

The story centers around two brothers, Tristan (Tim Pocock; X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Lemon Tree Passage ) and Nick (Dan Ewing; Power Rangers R.P.M., Love and Monsters ). Tristan has stayed and worked his grandfather’s farm while Nick left without much explanation years before. Their grandfather hand wanted the farm’s land to be returned to the local Aboriginals, but a developer has just offered Tristan a very large sum of money for it. He hoped his brother, long absent from the property, would give his blessing to sell it. Instead, he advises following the old man’s wishes. As if this doesn’t create enough tension between the brothers, Tristan has been working for the local dealer BJ (Ben Chisholm; The Legend of Ben Hall, The Hollowmen ) and he turns up with some friends looking to party. Said friends happen to include Anya (Sophie Don; Yesterday Is History, San Andreas ), Nick’s ex-girlfriend.

Sparke loads Devil Beneath up with enough characters and drama to make a straightforward film about sibling rivalry. It’s after those characters start disappearing and learn why the mysterious developer John Richards (Felix Williamson; Nekrotronic, Gods Of Egypt ), and the local tribespeople want the land that it becomes a creature feature.

It’s been several years since I saw Red Billabong , but I do remember it as having a lot, and I do mean a lot, of talk between BJ and his crew arrive to become potential monster chow and things really take off. Much of that has been condensed or cut out in Devil Beneath , and that’s a plus because all of the who is hot for who, old rivalries, etc is pretty much irrelevant to the film’s main plot. With that gone the film gets to the monster mayhem a lot quicker and is better off for it. There’s still a good bit of talking, but it mostly serves to fill in just what the creature, a bunyip, is and its place in Aboriginal lore.

It all comes down to a final act filled with revelations about the brother’s missing stepfather (John Reynolds; Aquaman, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales ), the bunyip taking on Richards, his team of mercs, and anyone who has managed to survive to this point. The one problem with this is, that while the CGI creature looks better than some of the things I’ve seen in much more recent films, it still suffers from being rendered with 2016 technology, and several scenes, especially those involving a green screen are noticeably rough.

While part of me wants to see the full version of Red Billabong again, I’m glad to see it finally get a US release. And, in many ways, it’s better off for the re-editing. Without the extra scenes, Devil Beneath has a better pace and is the more enjoyable of the two versions.

Devil Beneath is available on Digital platforms via Vertical Entertainment. ______

Review originally posted on Voices From the Balcony

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Devil beneath.

2023 Directed by Luke Sparke

In the shadows

Two estranged brothers come together and discover old family secrets after inheriting their grandfather's property. As their friends start to go missing, they fear they are being stalked by a creature lurking in the shadows.

Dan Ewing Tim Pocock Sophie Don Ben Chisholm Jessica Green Emily Joy

Director Director

Luke Sparke

Writer Writer

Alternative titles.

地穴恶魔, Ác Quỷ Ngầm, 惡魔在上

Horror Thriller

Releases by Date

13 jan 2023, releases by country.

• Digital PG-13

90 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by ✯ Miloš⑬ 💀↯ ★½

I'm confused now. I'm learning that it's the same movie as " Red Billabong " (2016), just with a different title and half an hour shorter. Why would they edit it to make the movie shorter and release it after 7 years?

As for my opinion of the movie, I can say that it was pretty bad. It started out decently but became boring and unwatchable later on. I know it's about a ritual or something, but I have no clue what it's about or how it all started. I just didn't care for the story. The performances by the actors made me want to stop watching the movie. They were all pretty bad. The dog was a better actor than all of them, and that's a fact. The CGI creature was laughably bad.

Overall, it had some enjoyable moments, but I still wouldn't even recommend it. I also like how they made it shorter, which saved me half an hour.

Review by Rodrigo P. ★

Definitivamente es... una película. Pero apenas si lo es. Tiene personajes que no son agradables, un antagonista tan genérico como uno lo esperaría en una película de kaijus, un diseño de criatura que ni siquiera se puede apreciar y un tonto plot de personas jóvenes, que son básicamente indiferenciables, en una cabaña (casi no hay de esas).

Los actores también son medio malones, sus reacciones son súper débiles e inconsistentes según lo que está pasando en la película. Los efectos también son bastante malos y bastante decepcionantes, porque uno esperaría aunque sea un buen payoff cuando se muestra a la criatura, y nomás no. La película tailandesa The Lake (2022) , que me recordó mucho a esta en pocos aspectos, hace…

Review by Schlock Horror ★★

So, I was sitting there, wondering why I felt like I had seen Devil Beneath before. It turns out that I watched this back in 2016, when it was called Red Billabong. It's the same movie, just released 7 years later to the US market with a all new title. Devil Beneath has been edited down from it's original 113 minute cut that was released in Australia, to the 86 minute cut. I don't remember the differences between them, but I feel like this version could have benefitted from some exposition.

Apparently, the film was also rescored and remixed for it's US release. I have no idea, are US audiences unable to sit through a horror movie that is longer…

Review by neve ½

Not surprising that a creature in Australia wants to kill them.

Review by KingKevzilla ★★

I didn't know until after watching this Australian monster movie was a edited down version from a movie made seven years ago. It wasn't noticeable in the first half, but in the second half it becomes really choppy. Another big problem with the second half, is that it gets way to dark see what's happening. It was so bad that I got confused who was who in some sences.

I would be interested in seeing the full, original 113 minute version. I think that could be better than this.

Review by Woutshappening ★½

This movie couldn't have been more Australian if it tried to be, really a digeridoo??? I understand the fact it's low budget but c'mon, at least try a bit more. For the most part it's just pretty boring and forgettable, and when it does get a bit interesting, they screw it up with an absurd ending. Don't even get me started on that nonsense.

Review by Raven ½

This movie will have you saying “oh nauuuuur” for all the wrong reasons

One of the main guys has a tribal armband tattoo but in smaller text said “Carpe Diem”, not important to the plot but everyone has to know that’s how the character work is in this. 🍅🍅🍅🍅

Review by Rob Simpson ★

Sometimes clearing out your Amazon watchlist provides you with new favourites and sometimes it really, really doesn't. The dog was the only character I really cared about, he was a good boy. I doubt this would be saved by a half an hour longer cut with the title of red billabong, I doubt much could elevate this material honestly.

Review by Brennan Dortch Cornelius Thunderbolt ★★★

So here we are again except this time the film has been cut down from the butt-numbing 113 minutes to 86. Did it help anything? Not really. I still feel the same way about it, it just took me a little less time to come to this conclusion… so I guess I’ll add a half-star. You should also remember that the amount of Tubi life-drainers I’ve watched in between my viewing of Red Billabong and Devil Beneath is probably not great for one’s health so let’s throw another half-star it’s way because I appreciate the effort it actually put behind everything. So I guess the recut did help and I’m just an asshole. Bunyips are a cool piece of Australian…

Review by warren🎬 ★

not enough big goofy monster.

Review by Jake the Snake ★

Took a long while to get going and then there’s a lot of off screen kills and a SyFy level CG monster. Damn, sounded promising but not worth it.

And then I find out it’s an edited version of a 2016 movie, which makes sense because the soundtrack was very mid 2010s. A half hour was apparently cut, wow how much more nothing was there originally?

Review by peter ★★★★

never trust a man named blow job

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Devil Beneath (2023)

Horror, Thriller

David Dastmalchian Deserves to Be a Star

This review was originally published on March 21, 2024. As of April 19, 2024, Late Night With the Devil is streaming on Shudder.

David Dastmalchian might be one of the most talented actors working today, but he’s become a familiar face in film largely through ubiquity — with brief but memorable roles as assorted weirdos in a variety of mainstream studio pictures. You might remember him as Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad , or a comically pompadoured Russian crook in the Ant-Man movies, or one of the psychos in Bird Box , or, well, one of the other psychos in The Dark Knight . Even his supporting turn in last year’s Oppenheimer , in which he played William Borden, a real-life bomber pilot turned national-security stooge who penned a damning letter against J. Robert Oppenheimer, capitalized on Dastmalchian’s anxious, unhinged energy. He’s great in these small character parts, but he can clearly do a lot more. Nowhere is this more evident than in the new horror film Late Night With the Devil , in which he walks the fine line between empathy and mystery, charming us while slowly allowing the darkness to creep in.

Written and directed by Cameron and Colin Cairnes, the picture takes place over the course of one episode of a fictional late-night talk show in 1977, Night Owls With Jack Delroy . It’s a novel approach to indie-film limitations: While there are some bookends (including an introductory montage that quickly weaves together Vietnam, Watergate, the Manson family, the Son of Sam, the rise of late-night TV, and an uptick in Satanism) as well as vérité interludes during the commercial breaks, the movie unfolds with the style and rhythm of an hour-plus of late night. The look is cheap, because it’s supposed to be. The camerawork is functional, because it’s supposed to be. The colors are washed out, because they’re supposed to be.

Dastmalchian’s Delroy, a Johnny Carson wannabe whose ratings are in the toilet and who hasn’t been the same since his beautiful actress wife died of cancer a year ago, possesses a smoothness that’s likable on TV and probably insufferable in person. He has a bit of Carson’s hammy hauteur, mixed with the aw-shucks irony of David Letterman and the chummy sincerity of Dick Cavett. He enunciates clearly, delivers punch lines with a point and a smirk, and offers rehearsed asides to the audience. If previous films have used Dastmalchian’s wide-set eyes and lopsided expression to make him an oddball, Late Night With the Devil reminds us that he’s also the kind of unthreateningly handsome, relatable type who probably could get a talk show in the ’70s. He belongs.

Of course, there’s also a hint of uncertainty lurking beneath everything. In the past, Dastmalchian has talked (particularly in this lovely interview with my colleague Nate Jones) of the impostor syndrome he sometimes feels on film sets, and he appears to have used some of that anxiety to subtly inform the character of Delroy. This man is so slick and polished because, perhaps, there’s nothing else under that surface.

The uncertainty in turn feeds the menace. This is, after all, a genre picture, and the particular episode of Night Owls With Jack Delroy we’re watching is a Halloween-night sweeps special in which Delroy will have on a psychic (Fayssal Bazzi), a skeptic (Ian Bliss), and a paranormal psychologist (Laura Gordon) who claims to have with her a traumatized teenager (Ingrid Torelli) who can commune with the forces of darkness. The most interesting character among these guests is Bliss’s Carmichael the Conjurer, a dapper magician who refuses to believe any of the supposedly supernatural occurrences we’re witnessing. Since this is horror, such a character must have a requisite amount of smugness — rationalists are always the bad guys in such movies — but Bliss renders Carmichael’s officiousness kind of charming; he’s still a showman at heart.

The cast makes Late Night With the Devil more than watchable, but they also raise our hopes for something better. While the talk-show approach makes perfect structural and narrative sense, it also drains the film of suspense, as we pretty much know where everything is going. And the picture does lose steam right as the terror and the surprise should be reaching a fever pitch, with a familiar, Exorcist -y climax (I’m not giving anything away) that doesn’t offer any new angles aside from the aforementioned late-night TV-show framing. Part of the problem might actually be rooted in how effectively the rest of the film works. Though the Cairneses do try to throw in some last-minute emotional twists, these feel thin and unremarkable — like token explanations rather than thrilling revelations. And Dastmalchian’s performance is ultimately too interesting and layered to deserve a finale that, for all its pyrotechnic Sturm und Drang , feels so shallow.

Screen Rant

New vampire movie abigail continues rotten tomatoes trend for acclaimed horror directors.

The new Universal vampire horror movie Abigail starring Melissa Barrera and Dan Stevens continues a Rotten Tomatoes hot streak for its directors.

• Abigail has earned a Fresh score of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes ahead of its release.
• Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have a positive record with no Rotten scores since 2014.
• The filmmaking collective Radio Silence, which includes Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, is on a similar hot streak.

Abigail has continued a positive Rotten Tomatoes trend for its directors. The new vampire movie, which is a reimagining of the Universal classic Dracula's Daughter , stars an ensemble cast that includes Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Angus Cloud, Alisha Weir, and Giancarlo Esposito. It is the latest outing from the filmmaking collective Radio Silence, which includes Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez, and Chad Villella. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, who co-directed Abigail , have previously collaborated as directors on titles including Ready or Not , Scream (2022), and Scream VI .

Rotten Tomatoes has aggregated an initial critic score out of 22 reviews for the movie just a few days ahead of the official Abigail release . While this score will fluctuate as more reviews are added, at the time of writing it is a solidly Fresh 82% . This continues a string of Fresh scores for the directing duo, who haven't earned a Rotten score on the platform since their 2014 found footage movie Devil's Due , which earned 19%.

How Long Can Radio Silence's Rotten Tomatoes Steak Last?

The abigail filmmakers have a history of critical horror hits.

While these Abigail reviews provide the directing duo with their latest critical win, Radio Silence itself has had a similar hot streak. Aside from the Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett-helmed productions on their roster, the group has also had a hand in horror outings involving other directors including several installments in the V/H/S found footage anthology franchise, as well as the unrelated anthologies Phobias and Southbound . Below, see how every movie the group has had a part in has been received on Rotten Tomatoes:

Every Radio Silence Movie Ranked Worst to Best (Including Scream 2022)

From their entire roster so far, only their first two movies have received Rotten scores. This means that overall, this critical hot streak has lasted 10 years and nine movies , though it does remain to be seen how far the group can carry it before receiving another Rotten score. Radio Silence already has a few officially announced movies in development, which could either extend or end their streak after the critical success of the new horror movie.

After Abigail , the next Radio Silence production to be released will likely be the Apple TV+ movie Fountain of Youth , which teams stars John Krasinski and Natalie Portman with director Guy Ritchie. Other projects that are reportedly in development include a remake of Escape from New York and the Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett projects The Ice Beneath Her and Reunion . While the scores for the original titles are difficult to predict, the team has already proven their ability to revive critically acclaimed IP with Scream , so their Escape remake might have a chance to continue their streak as well.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Abigail (2024)

*Availability in US

Not available

Abigail is a 2024 horror thriller directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The plot follows a group of people who kidnap the daughter of a dangerous crime lord only to discover that the little girl is actually a vicious vampire out for blood. Alisha Weir stars as the titular character alongside Kathryn Newton, Melissa Barrera, and Dan Stevens.

• Action/Adventure
• Children's/Family
• Documentary/Reality
• Amazon Prime Video

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Late Night with the Devil’ on Shudder, an Amusing High-Concept Horror-Comedy Starring David Dastmalchian

Where to stream:.

• Late Night with the Devil
• Stream and Scream

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Horror-comedy Late Night with the Devil ( now streaming on Shudder and AMC+ ) had a strong opening for an IFC Films release, grossing $2.8 million in its opening weekend. Notably, it made $666,666 on that Sunday, prompting Variety to report “you can’t make this up,” although I’d assert that you very much CAN make that stuff up, especially if a film company’s marketing and PR departments are reporting the numbers. Anyway, Aussie sibling directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes did what few people are brave enough to do: They made modern cinema’s du-jour character actor, David Dastmalchian, their lead, playing a 1970s late-night talk show host who’s desperate for ratings, and therefore lets his live Halloween broadcast fly way off the rails. That makes for “good TV,” especially if you’re peddling satire, but does the premise make for a good movie? Let’s find out.

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: We hear Michael Ironside’s voice, and it is indeed foreboding. (It’s accompanied, appropriately, by the music of one obscure heavy metal band called Pentagram, to which I say, nice .) Ironside’s giving us a brief history of Jack Delroy (Dastmalchian), aka “Mr. Midnight,” and his late-night talk show Night Owls . The show launched in 1971, aiming to take down Johnny Carson. Seems like a fool’s errand, but whatever – you gotta dream big. It went pretty well for a while, landing Delroy an Emmy nomination and a five-year contract extension. By 1977, though, things looked less rosy. Ratings plateaued. None of the Emmy nods became Emmy wins. Delroy’s beloved wife died of lung cancer. He was rumored to be involved with a weird cabal of men who occasionally gathered in the woods to perform arcane occult rituals and such. And then – dum dum DUMMMM – it was Sweeps Week, you know, the time when ratings counted the most and TV series were canceled or renewed. Such drama!

And this is when the fateful Night Owls broadcast occurred. Thus, the gimmick: What we’re about to see is the long-lost unedited master tape of the show, which aired live on Oct. 31, 1977, and “shocked the nation.” Delroy takes the stage for his monologue of lame jokes and banter with his sidekick Gus (Rhys Auteri), then cheekily asks his audience to “keep an open mind” with regards to the evening’s slate of guests: A psychic medium, a magician-slash-skeptic and a parapsychologist. This seems like all the ordinary dopey stuff of era-specific talk shows. So far, so good. 

Christou (Fayssal Bazzi) takes the stage and does his I’m-sensing-a-name-that-starts-with-P cornball scam-shtick, and all goes OK, but there’s a weird incident when his eyes roll back in his head and the lights flicker and crackle. As they say, curious . Then the skeptic, Carmichael the Conjurer (Ian Bliss), joins the show, and he can explain all paranormal phenomena in rational terms, which is admirable, but our ideological loyalty to him disintegrates when he ends up being a smug, pompous ass and serial condescendypants. Something ain’t right with Christou, and he projectile-spews black sludge all over Carmichael, who instantly insists it’s just an old vaudeville trick. Then, the guests du jour arrive, Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and her ward, a teenager named Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), who survived a Satanic mass suicide and also acts very oddly, possibly because she claims to be possessed by an evil demon. “‘Psychic infestation’ is the term we prefer,” Dr. June says, and it’s only a matter of time before Delroy coerces her to demonstrate said “psychic infestation” to the live TV audience out there. Seems like a terrible idea but great TV, and what rules over all in this reality? Ratings, baby! Or Satan. Is there a difference?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: This is kinda like The Exorcist meets The Morton Downey Jr. Show . 

Performance Worth Watching: It’s easy to like Dastmalchian’s portrayal of a desperate TV host who seems both incredibly vulnerable but also immune to flop sweat – an impressive balancing act. 

Memorable Dialogue: Delroy: “Ladies and gentlemen, please stay tuned for a live television first, as we attempt to commune with the devil. But not before a word from our sponsors.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: The message of Late Night with the Devil is kinda Old Testament: Thou shalt not worship false idols. And is there a bigger false idol than the ol’ boob tube? Yeah, especially in the social media age, so we need to think bigger, so we land on media itself, or the shiny bauble that media dangles in front of people, fame, which is false as all hell, pun totally intended. Not that the film is entirely focused on this theme. It stays firmly in the Satire Zone, and gets a little spoofy about the post-Manson/pre-Satanic Panic period of pop-cultural occultism and lampoons the schmaltzy entertainment of the post-variety-show/pre-David-Letterman era of chitchat TV. (Is it me, or is trotting out psychic mediums sub-bottom-of-the-barrel entertainment?)

The film shows evidence of needing another draft in the writers’ room – the quasi-found-footage structure is as inconsistent as the wobbly archer-shots at thematic targets. There are moments when the Delroy character could use more focus, but Dastmalchian nevertheless endures and endears; when Torelli turns up to creep out the audience by staring directly into the camera with unsettlingly aggressive friendliness, she gooses the film to life for its final act. As for the ending, it’s surprisingly challenging, or it doesn’t make much sense, take your pick. But the Cairnses maintain an uneasy comic tone throughout, and the proliferation of goo from their impressively throwbacky practical effects helps spackle over any script problems. We nitpick because we must, but bottom line, Late Night with the Devil is a consistently funny and entertaining horror-comedy with at least a little bit of something on its mind.

Our Call: [Presses fingers to temples, closes eyes in concentration] I’m… I’m sensing… an “S” word… is there an “S” around here anywhere… soup… stoop… steam… stream… STREAM IT. 

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

• horror comedy

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Watch 'Devil Comet' approach the sun during explosive coronal mass ejection (video)

NASA's space-based solar observatory STEREO-A is keeping a close eye on 'Devil Comet' 12P/Pons-Brooks as it prepares to make its closest approach to the sun — known as perihelion — on April 21. In this footage, the comet is passing by Jupiter from the observatory's perspective, just as a coronal mass ejection (CME), a large expulsion of plasma and magnetic field from the sun, launches into space.

CMEs form in a similar fashion to solar flares : They're the result of the twisting and realignment of the sun's magnetic field, known as magnetic reconnection . When these magnetic field lines 'tangle' they produce strong localized magnetic fields which can break through the sun's surface and release CMEs.

Related: 'Devil Comet' 12P/Pons-Brooks is heading for the sun. Will it survive?

TOP TELESCOPE PICK:

Want to see comet 12P/Pons-Brooks for yourself? We recommend the  Celestron Astro Fi 102  as the top pick in our  best beginner's telescope guide .

In this NASA video, you can see a kink in the tail of comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, created during a 'disconnection event' triggered by a CME or strong gust of solar wind, according to Spaceweather.com . During a disconnection event, these solar outbursts can uproot a comet's tail and force it away from the comet.

The same kink is visible in this incredible image below captured by Chris Schur on April 9.

"The comet is a spectacular sight both in binoculars and with the camera from our northern Arizona location," Schur told Space.com.

"This image is our best shot yet at this wonder, the beautiful kinked blue gas tail follows the dusty amber-tinted coma shaped like a parabola as it heads for its coming perihelion" Schur continued.

On April 21, comet 12P/Pons-Brooks will pass within about 72.6 million miles (116.8 million km), of the sun, this is equivalent to three-quarters the Earth's distance from the sun.

The comet has gained much media attention in recent years due to its sudden glare ups in brightness and changing appearance.

Related stories:

—  Here's how to see 'horned' comet 12P/Pons-Brooks at its brightest this week (video)

—  Solar spacecraft 'SOHO' discovers its 5,000th comet

—  Comets that 'bounce' from planet to planet could spread life across the universe

Though the exact cause of these flares is unknown, Richard Miles of the British Astronomical Association thinks comet 12P/Pons Brooks may be one of 10 to 20 known comets that contain active ice volcanoes.

The 'magma' of these volcanoes is a cold mixture of liquid hydrocarbons and dissolved gasses, all trapped beneath a surface that has the consistency of wax, skywatching columnist and meteorologist Joe Rao previously reported . "These bottled-up volatiles can explode when sunlight opens a fissure," Rao explained.

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks gained the moniker 'Devil Comet' when a large outburst on July 20, 2023, caused a shell of expanding gas surrounding the nucleus, known as the coma, to resemble some a horseshoe shape. After this, comet 12P/Pons-Brooks has been likened to a horseshoe crab, the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars and yes, you guessed it, the 'Devil Comet'.

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