Starring David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssai Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli, Rhys Auteri, Georgina Haig and Josh Quong Tart. Narrated by Michael Ironside. Written and directed by Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes. Running time 93 minutes.
The film, narrated by Michael Ironside, is presented as a documentary and concerns the mysterious events leading up to filming of a Halloween special filmed for a 1970s late night chat show called: Night Owls. The film purportedly features unaired video tapes of the show.
Starting out with a brief biography of the show's host, Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) where we learn of his rise to the almost top of the chat-show game, his association with a mysterious gentlemen's club called Bohemian Grove, and the tragic death through cancer of his beloved wife, Madeleine (Georgina Haig). We learn that the episode of the show we are about to watch was never broadcast for obvious reasons.
Using the actual footage of the show we are introduced to Jack through his opening monologue, his nerdy sidekick, Gus McConnell (Rhys Auteri)'s and his three guests for the evening's show, Christou, a psychic (Fayssai Bazzi), Carmichael the Conjurer (Ian Bliss), a former magician turned skeptic, and Dr. June Ross-Mitchell and Lilly D'Abo (Laura Gordon and Ingrid Torelli) as a parapsychologist and author and her patient, the survivor of a mass suicide. It turns out that Ingrid is also possessed by no less than the devil himself.
We learn that the evening's episode is a last desperate 'Hail Mary' shot for Jack as the show faces the axe. What follows will almost certainly secure his future but perhaps not in the way he intended...
I think to give away more of the plot would be unfair, if you want to see this, going in knowning as little as possible should keep it far more entertaining.
This is an unsettling and at times scary little horror flick. David Dastmalchian, despite carrying the film, doesn't fully convince as a popular late-night chat-show host, he's a tad too creepy and his Jack Delroy comes across as a man hiding too many secrets, some of which are hinted at and we never truly uncover them. The other characters particularly Carmichael the Conjurer obviously modelled after the Amazing James Randi are entertaining and the sense of menace the film engenders is good. However the third act descent into full-out horror isn't as successful, let down by some shonky special effects, and a deeply implausible sequence featuring Carmichael and Gus.
That said, this is still good romp that doesn't outstay its welcome coming in at a brisk 93 minutes, which makes a refreshing change from the usual bloated hollywood fare projectile vomited over us. The film has some nice horror flourishes and gross-out moments but sadly suffers from an ending which doesn't quite land and the breaking of the 'found footage' aspect to shoehorn the conclusion is a weak coda to the film.
8/10
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