Haunted Housewives with Tish and Lily

07/19/2024

Longlegs
Osgood Perkins, dir.
2024

Turn on Shudder or Screambox and you’ll find many, many genres of horror: Folk Horror, Slashers, Haunted Houses, Possession, Obsessive Love…the list goes on. I would argue though that, at bottom, there are two basic schools of horror: horror that endangers your body, and horror that endangers your soul. Osgood Perkins’ heavily hyped new movie treads a queasy line between the two, following the trail of a vicious serial killer who opens up bodies like birthday gifts to get at what’s inside.

If you’ve been online at all over the past few months, you’ve seen the marketing for this movie, which suggests that it’s something like “Silence of the Lambs” – but with demons! The marketing campaign has been brilliant, but it flattens out the sheer weirdness of this movie. The premise of “Longlegs” echoes Jonathan Demme’s classic: a young, female FBI agent is drawn into the search for a brutal, elusive serial killer. The similarities end there. Vulnerable, deeply damaged Lee Harker is no Clarice Starling and Longlegs (the moniker the serial killer has chosen for himself) is neither Dr. Lector nor Buffalo Bill. There are also slivers and shards of other horror movies in here, from “Rosemary’s Baby” to “Annabelle,” but “Longlegs” is its own unsettling monster.

Mild spoilers ahead.

This movie is likely to divide audiences, in part because any marketing campaign so smart and successful is bound to raise expectations to an impossible height. But “Longlegs” is likely to be divisive because of its distinctive, pervasive style. Don’t walk into this movie expecting big twists (although there are a couple of startling revelations) or big jump scares (although again, there are a couple of moments that may propel you out of your seat). Don’t expect a tightly plotted procedural. Plot is almost beside the point. (There’s an underlying suggestion that human action and human intention are meaningless.) Instead, this is a sustained exercise in dread: the movie opens on a washed-out winter day in the Pacific Northwest as a little girl scribbles in a coloring book and a paneled station wagon lurks just at the edge of the property. You get the inescapable feeling that something bad is about to happen; something bad may have already happened…and things are only going to get worse. There is little action in this scene, but it sets a tone of palpable anxiety (and ends with a shock that may have you throwing your popcorn).

After this opening, we meet Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), a serious young FBI agent with an uncanny sense of trouble. This sixth sense earns the attention of one of her superiors, Carter (Blair Underwood), who has been tasked with trying to solve the case of a serial killer who has been haunting the Pacific Northwest for decades. The killer’s MO is unconventional: through a series of coded messages, he has implicated himself in a series of grisly murders. In each one, an apparently loving father has slaughtered his family and then himself in what looks like an open-and-shut murder-suicide, but the coded messages and the similarity of the scenes has led the FBI to believe that a serial killer is murdering the families or is influencing the murders. Harker joins the hunt only to realize that she too is being hunted.

Even aside from this weirdness, all is not well in this world. Harker is socially awkward and withdrawn, comfortable only when she is working on a case. She has stilted phone conversations with her anxious, absent mother (Alicia WItt), who urges her to say her prayers. Carter is genial and charming, but he avoids his own family and drinks a little too much. And it’s not just the characters, it’s the setting. “Longlegs” takes place in a world apparently devoid of cities – and of groups of people. Buildings are isolated farmhouses, darkened cabins, or empty suburban constructions. The world is full of shadows – often the camera places Harker at the center or side of a frame with darkness around her. The palette veers from wintry grays and whites to murky browns and greens; the world is muted or muddled, making the sudden splashes of crimson all the more shocking. The sound design is similarly muted. Long stretches of silence are broken with the sound of a door handle or the chorus of a rock song, to startling effect.

“But,” I hear you asking, “what about Nicolas Cage?” Because if there’s one thing people know about this movie aside from the whole Satanic-serial-killer schtick, it’s that the movie features a villainous turn from Nicolas Cage at his Cage-iest. His performance is everything you would expect – weird, showy, unsettling – but it’s also controlled. Cage seems to have drawn inspiration from weirdo novelty rocker TIny Tim, creating a monster who is childlike, androgynous, nutty, and skincrawlingly strange. For most of the movie, the camera refuses to meet Longlegs head on, allowing us to see him only in glimpses, at odd angles, from the corners of our eyes, underscoring his elusiveness. We come to learn a few things about Longlegs – his love of glam rock, his preference for the color white, his devotion to Satan – but he remains an enigma. He seems less possessed by the devil than hollowed out. It’s significant that this movie’s vision of evil isn’t suave or calculating but kind of shabby and pathetic…but that doesn’t make evil less powerful.

If you’re familiar with the work of Osgood Perkins (son of “Psycho” star Anthony Perkins and costar of Reese Witherspoon in “Legally Blonde” – werk!), you know that this movie will be moody, atmospheric, great-looking, slow-moving, and unconventional. Perkins built his reputation and his aesthetic with gorgeous, oblique thrillers like “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” and “I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House.” Like those films, “Longlegs” has powerful – almost overwhelming – style and a sense of dread that keeps ratcheting up through the movie’s run time. Does it always make sense? Um, no. Is it the scariest movie of the decade? No again. Will it make you so unbearably tense that you stop breathing for long moments? Hell, yeah. Perkins’ vision – a gray, empty rural landscape haunted by incomprehensible forces – may not inspire terror, but it’s steeped in despair and dread.

“Longlegs” is not what its marketing would suggest and it’s not what you may expect, but if you want diabolical vibes that will have you searching the shadows and peering over your shoulder, this could be exactly what you’re looking for.

07/16/2024

Duda's Haunted Farm
Bloodfest
Brownsville, PA
July 13, 2024

Ah, there’s nothing as cheery and festive as a farm in midsummer, with all its sights and sounds, – the ripening corn, the shrieks of children, the deranged laughter of a hulking lunatic in a bloodstained shirt…

Yeah, you read that right. Summer at Duda’s means not only heaps of fresh produce but also a glimpse of what lies just around the seasonal corner, when Duda’s Farm Market becomes Duda’s Haunted Farm.

On this steamy, gorgeous July evening, Duda’s is given over to Bloodfest, a sneak peek of the farm’s lively haunted attraction. But Bloodfest is not just a lightweight preview – it’s an interactive special event that promises guests a bloody good time. Signs around the property warn that Bloodfest is an experience for the eyes, ears, and nose…and they're not kidding. Sure, as befits something called Bloodfest, there are gallons of fake blood. Guests who really want to get into the spirit of things are invited to line up while a dude with a chainsaw sprays them with a tank of O Positive. Aside from that purely voluntary sacrifice, guests are subjected to foam, bubbles, blasts of rancid air, and “gasoline,” among other things. Just about every scene includes some interactive element – but except for the blood, the substances don’t seem to stain, and there’s nothing so gory or gross that you couldn’t take a brave older kid to Bloodfest.

Duda’s is a relative newcomer to the local haunt scene, but what Lily and I saw at Bloodfest suggests that this place has big ambitions and is only going to get bigger and better. Guests mount tall, swaying, tractor-drawn hay wagons and head up a hill, into the woods and fields of the farm. Even without creatures lurking around every tree and corn stalk, the place has a wonderfully creepy atmosphere: torches flicker along the path and shadows loom. But Duda’s makes sure that there are in fact plenty of creatures to stop the wagons and climb the frames that surround them. Fair warning – these creatures may be dead or dying, but that doesn’t make them any less agile. They writhe, twist, and spin around the wagon like poisonous snakes. But not all of the creatures are simply wandering the trail. The wagons pass through a series of scenes (a circus, a mad doctor’s operating room, a moonshiner’s shack, a chainsaw barn, a roadkill cafe, a gas station, a drive-in, and a living dolls’ house, among other things) where guests watch (and participate in!) interactions between the various monsters and maniacs. The scenes are always energetic, often funny, and original.

A couple of factors help Duda’s to stand out. The trek winds though woods and fields, offering plenty of cover for anything that might want to jump out at you – and Duda’s exploits this by hiding phantoms along the trail, ready to jump out and menace the hay wagons. That means that scares can happen at any time, not just during the scenes that punctuate the trail. (These phantoms are very effective – Lily screamed, jumped, and threw herself across the wagon Every. Damn. Time. they appeared.) Duda’s other secret weapon is an extraordinarily talented cast of actors. As soon as Lily and I arrived, we noticed a veritable army of freaks wandering the grounds. There were a couple of chainsaw maniacs, including one mountain of a man in a pig mask and a bloodstained bunny. The cadre of creeps also included a demonic bride, a giggling mad doctor, and a downhome zombie in a calico dress, ichor dripping from her mouth. Because the hayrides didn’t start until dark, these tireless and effective creatures had plenty of time to menace the guests. The performances on the trail were also fantastic, from a clown standing in the middle of the road warbling “I WIll Always Love You” to a vicious (and acrobatic) mad doctor to the squabbling siblings Wanda and Earl. We also enjoyed the cannibal cook, the crazed gas station attendant, a masked creature who threw himself between the bars of our wagon, and a bevy of very convincing living dolls. But really, there were no weak links in this chain. Even the hosts who helped us onto the wagon were excellent – Hilly showed us some real down-home hospitality (and she assured us that all the red stains on her dress were just from painting the barn).

But even if you don’t want to board a tall, shaking hay wagon and venture off into the darkness, Bloodfest gives you plenty to do. This is a full-fledged, horror-themed summer festival; you could spend hours just eating, drinking, and visiting vendors.

Duda’s Bloodfest is a happy addition to the calendar for any horror hound – it’s both a summer celebration of all things spooky and an exciting taste of the darkness to come. (And while Duda’s warns guests that they will get wet and gooey, the level of gore isn’t overwhelming. Lily and I would love to see some of this interactive and slightly messy fun incorporated into Duda’s regular Halloween season). Luckily, fans have one more chance to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of Bloodfest – the gates to the farm open again on July 27. If you like some fear with your fairs and fireworks, check out Duda’s Bloodfest – it will leave a mark.

Cost: $25 at the ticket booth. Also, be sure to bring cash because cellular reception…ain’t great.

Safety Protocols, Group Size, Etc.: The wagons seat about 25, but you will get to know your neighbors when the monsters start to board the wagons.

Concessions: There is a bar (bring your ID!), a coffee cart (Coffin Bean), shaved ice, concessions from Beck’s Pizza, and treats from the farm including corn on the cob (delicious!) and fresh-cut fries.

Other stuff to do: So much! Duda’s hosts a whole marketplace with cups and mugs from The Trinkitorium, bone-chilling masks and inventive wax melts from Lifeless Creations, signed books from writer Brooklynn Dean, Bill Dawson’s horror-themed photos, 1331 Studios’ eerie paintings, videos and songs from local horror hosts Terror Night Theatre, and so much more. There’s a DJ spinning tunes like “Dream Warriors” and “Red Right Hand”; there’s even a mechanical bull!

Other stuff to know: You’ll be sitting on actual bales of hay, so plan accordingly (Lily wore shorts, and regretted it). Also, while the gates open at 7, the wagons don’t start rolling until after dark.

06/24/2024

During these short lulls when there aren’t quite as many haunts for us to visit, we placate our love of horror by watching it on the screen instead of up close and personal. Sometimes we re-watch things we’ve seen and sometimes we choose something completely new and different. We thought we would share all of the movies that we watched this spring with you. Let us know if you’ve seen any of these, what you thought about them, and if you have any suggestions for what we should watch next. Here is our list from April-June.

The Exorcist 1973
The Ring 2002
The Exorcism of Emily Rose 2005
Baghead 2023
Trick or Treat 1986
Next of Kin 1982
You’ll Never Find Me 2023
Hell House LLC 2009
Stopmotion 2024
Lisa Frankenstein 2024
TV series Preacher
TV series Interview with the Vampire
Wake Wood 2009
The Girl Who Got Away 2021
In the Tall Grass 2019
Exhuma 2024
The Omen 1976
The First Omen 2024

06/16/2024

Whether it's grave robbing, vivisection, or necromancy, a good father shares his child's interests. Happy Father's Day to all the dreadful dads out there -- make some memories today!

06/08/2024

Castle Blood
Summerween: Myths and Mayhem
Monessen, PA
June 7-8, 2024

The halls are awash with an eerie, purple light. Distant thuds and whispers accompany our footsteps. We have just crossed the threshold of the Museum of Cryptospookology, a room lined with shelves and cabinets packed with cryptid bones, preserved Fiji mermaids, books, and curiosities, when a panel in the wall slides away and a voice bellows, “GIMME A HUG!” I dart away from the arms grabbing at us from the wall but Lily turns toward the wall monster, smiling, her own arms extended. The Museum’s caretaker, Madame Nightshade, stares at Lily, a look of disbelief on her pale, regal face. She murmurs something about how there’s no accounting for human behavior, but we are at Castle Blood, after all, and the whole point of the Castle is to improve human-monster relations. (Seriously – don't touch the monsters, folks, and they won't touch you.)

Castle Blood isn’t your typical haunted house. Sure, it’s packed from catacombs to attic with a wide variety of supernatural creatures, and there are jump scares along the trek, but the Castle is more hilarious than horrific. The monsters who make their home here are more akin to the Munsters and the Addams than to the Sawyers or the Firefly clan. They are more likely to cut you down with a well-timed insult than to drain your veins. The MacCabre family and their friends want their guests to have fun – sure, it’s fun in an old funeral home hung with cobwebs and corpses and decorated like the set of "Bram Stoker's Dracula", but it’s fun all the same.

Every visit to Castle Blood takes the form of an adventure tour: guests have to collect three talismans while solving puzzles along the way with the help (or more often, the active hindrance) of the Castle’s denizens. Often, these puzzles involve some sort of up-close, old-school stage magic. Typically, the Castle will force you to learn something along the way – lines of poetry, bits of folklore, snippets of history. The adventure also requires extended interactions with a wide variety of monsters.

This time around, the Castle weaves some seasonal lore – about spring cleaning, weddings, and other things – into the tour. The ensuing puzzles range from tests of memory to feats of mathematics and logic. But as always with the Castle, there are deeper lessons to be learned. It seems that the Castle’s werewolves and vampires have been fighting to prove which of them is “better” – but as roguish Morgana points out, the Castle is home to more than just two types of creatures, and the whole concept of “better” is kind of silly when it comes to monsters, anyway.

Lily and I find all these monsters equally delightful. These characters are fully fleshed out (if we can use the term “fleshed out” to describe creatures who might not have flesh at all). Josette has a commanding presence that would be right at home at the Theatre des Vampires. The nameless faun lurking in the woods of Crow Haven is playful and watchful, a forest creature down to their hooves. Lady Die is warm and reassuring while Loomis is dry and bemused. Professor Scrye has the energy and cadence of a carnival barker, barely hiding his contempt for the human rubes who stumble into his Experimentorium. Phoebe is an arch, encouraging monster while witty Malevia seems genuinely curious about humans and their customs. Annatoli seems both amused and mildly exasperated by the humans who keep trooping through his nice, clean Castle. Kritara is almost preternaturally poised – but I guess that's what happens when you know all and see all. Morgana is a queen of air and darkness, lots of fun and lots of trouble, while Madame Nightshade is a grave and gracious ambassador for the Fair Folk. Even the Things in the Walls have distinct characters: the creature upstairs is a gleeful demon while the thing downstairs is boisterous and relentless. Professor Ezra offers the kindest of welcomes to the darkness while little Raven and Lenore balance creepiness and charm as the Castle's newest generation of demon children. Also, fair warning: you may solve the Castle's puzzles, but you'll never best its denizens.

Castle Blood recognizes that darkness isn't confined to one time of day or one season of the year. There's a wealth of stories to mine and shadows to explore. So, if you can't wait for Halloween and you want to spend some time with the most huggable monsters this side of Transylvania, head out to Castle Blood.

Cost: $25 – you can buy at the ticket booth or schedule an entry time online.

Safety Protocols, Group Size, Etc.: For this adventure, it was just our immediate group of 3, but smaller groups may be combined so that they can work together.

Concessions: Alas, no eating at the Castle – unless you’re one of the resident vampires.

Other stuff to do: The Castle maintains an excellent gift shop with Castle-branded tees and sweatshirts and a huge selection of charming, creepy, handmade Halloween ornaments and wall art. There are also plenty of photo ops scattered around the Castle yard.

Other stuff to know: You have to climb (and descend) stairs in the course of the tour, and part of the haunt is outside. The entire journey lasts 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how long it takes you to solve each puzzle.

05/23/2024

Freddy's Haunts
Halfway to Halloween
Aliquippa, PA
May 17-18, 24-26 2024

Lily and I are standing on the ramp that leads into the huge, blank-faced building ahead of us. We stare up at the bloodied body hanging next to the ramp, at the figures lurking in the woods beside us. Even at this distance, we can feel the heat from a massive bonfire; the air rings with guitars and drums. A tall, white-faced lunatic with a chainsaw squeezes into the line next to us. He’s humming happily; as Lily shrinks behind me, he hoists his chainsaw and grins. “Here’s my advice to you when you’re in there. You feel like you gotta p**s yourself, just go ahead and do it. Be like Elsa – just let that s**t go.”

Good advice. We need it – we’re at Freddy’s Haunts for their Halfway to Halloween event, and past experience has taught us to expect the worst from these maniacs. Thanks to places like this, we really need a corporate sponsorship from Depends.

Freddy’s Haunts has once again teamed up with the crazies from Nightmare at Stagecoach Hollow to help haunted house fans pass the time until Halloween. However, Freddy’s Halfway to Halloween celebration is not just a sampler. There is nothing reduced or off-season about this event; it’s as wild and funny as the regular season show – but before we get into the details of this event, there are a few things you should know about Freddy’s. While the haunt is housed in a massive building, you really don’t feel like you’re indoors. Instead, Freddy’s bills itself as an all enclosed haunted trail; more than anything else, it simulates the experience of being lost in a cave. The trail winds through claustrophobic hallways bounded by vines or metal pipes or stalks of corn and opens up into haunted cabins or Wild West saloons or nightmarish mazes. The vibe here is old-school and low-tech; one of our favorite areas of the haunt is a punishingly narrow switchback where guests have to squeeze between cages of skeletons that have been splashed with day-glo paint. But Freddy’s also uses its effects well – Lily and I stumble into a couple of hallways filled with fog and pulsing strobe lights that left us thoroughly disoriented. We also liked the “dungeon escape" effect, which was helped along by a couple of enthusiastic, creepy young actors.

The actors are one of the strengths of this event. Aside from the satanic Juggalos on loan from Stagecoach Hollow (JJ, his brother, and the rest of their cheerfully murderous posse), Freddy’s warren of caves is packed with maniacs, many of them armed and dangerous. In fact, we count three chainsaws in Freddy’s narrow halls. (Sure, the nice staff members who collect your ticket will tell you not to run, but try remembering that when some masked killer with a chainsaw pops out from a hidden entrance.) If the chainsaw-wielding maniacs don’t get you, the mad doctor with a cattle prod just might. (This relentless, disfigured, skull-faced dude looks like something Hellboy would fight.) The design of the place means that there are plenty of hiding places and plenty of opportunities for close encounters. There are creatures everywhere – and we do mean everywhere. We are forced to walk under one monster who is dangling from the wall above us. (“I’m Spider-Man!” he declared.) There is a creepy girl who sniffs at us, a menacing granny, and more jump scares than we can count.

In short, it’s our idea of a good time.

Freddy’s Haunts isn’t fancy, but it is intense, effective, funny, and fun. They want to make sure that their guests enjoy themselves. That extends to the yard – Freddy’s reliably builds the biggest bonfire in Allegheny County. They also host live bands (Fuzzii was playing while we were there) and offer a range of concessions. Plus, Freddy’s has an army of excellent, completely insane actors who roam the yard (and who regularly chase terrified teenagers into the woods).

So, if you can’t wait till Halloween or you’re looking for something different to do on a weekend night, head out to Freddy’s Haunts. And don’t be afraid to scream or run or make a fool of yourself. Like the man said, just let that s**t go.

Cost: $20 for general admission.

Safety Protocols, Group Size, Etc.: We started out in a group of 9, but were quickly separated. At one point, we were in the middle of a giant pack of people trying to escape the maze; at other points, it was just Lily and me (and some bloodthirsty killer).

Concessions: Yes. There is a concession stand offering sandwiches, a vendor selling candy, and a shaved ice stand (perfect for a hot spring night).

Other stuff to do: Enjoy the bonfire and the live bands or try to outrun the chainsaws.

Other stuff to know: You are walking through a damn cave. It is occasionally completely dark and the floors are uneven.

05/22/2024

It's Lily's birthday! This crazy little venture would be nothing without her vision and dedication, her creativity and humor, her eye for detail and her sheer recklessness. For several years now, our motto has been, "Let's see what happens!" Thanks to her, what happens is always fun.

So, rev up your chainsaws, deck the halls with spiderwebs, and party hard enough to wake the dead! Happy birthday, Lily, and thank you for all that you do.

05/21/2024

Infernum In Terra Haunted Attraction
Wheeling, WV
May 10-11, 2024

We all have something we look forward to when summer rolls around. Maybe it’s camping in a flimsy little tent way out in the woods. Maybe it’s screaming your lungs out on a rickety roller coaster. Maybe it’s swimming in the murky waters of a bottomless lake. Or maybe you just love it when the circus comes to town.

If you can’t get enough of clowns and freak shows, then Infernum in Terra’s got you covered. This haunted attraction has made a name for itself for its intensity, its quirkiness, and its bespoke props (the owners also run Screamation Studios, creating props for other haunts around the country). If you visit Infernum in Terra during the Halloween season, you can count on a wicked sense of humor and an attention to detail along with relentless darkness. This off-season event, occurring roughly halfway to Halloween is just as scary, just as funny, just as nerve-wracking as their regular journey through hell – except that this time, there are clowns.

You see, the old brick building looming over a narrow alley is actually a gateway to hell, haunted by demons and the souls they have devoured. This May, though, the demons have eaten a whole circus full of clowns.

You might say they taste…funny.

Anyway, the demons have learned that you are what you eat, so the entire building is overrun by diabolical clowns. There are balloons and other “festive” touches in nearly every room; the hauntrunners understand that, in the wrong context, almost any object can look sinister. Lily and I are big fans of the roomful of antique dolls and the haunted bathroom (scary, funny, and gross at the same time) but we find ourselves reluctant to enter a narrow room containing only a piano, some candles, and a bunch of mirrors. The set dressing is impeccable, from a backwoods cabin to a demonic chapel. The twisted minds behind this creation know the impact of a good visual – at one point, I turn back to make sure that no one is following me and I see a murderous clown silhouetted against a cloud of purple fog.

Infernum in Terra is a great-looking haunt, but beyond that, it’s a well-designed one. The animatronics and lights are calibrated to go off at just the right moment to make you jump and shriek. The interior of this massive building has been carved into tiny rooms with hidden exits and narrow switchback halls that leave guests disoriented and dazed.The hauntrunners use everything at their disposal – props, animatronics, set dressing, sound, lighting, the building itself – to create a terrifying impression.

Oh, and I did mention there were clowns, didn’t I?

Infernum in Terra could coast on great props and impressive atmosphere but this place doesn’t do anything by halves. If the theme is “Possessed Clowns,” then you better be damn sure that you are going to be teased, tormented, and chased by possessed clowns. Lily and I are greeted by Mustard, a cheerily demonic entity who is both loopy and sinister. She keeps popping up at unexpected moments – clowns love to make an entrance. We also run into a sad fellow who just wants to make friends, a creepy little critter in a maze, a relentless serial killer type, and a bunch of feral weirdos in the basement…as well as the, er, Clown Pope. There are a surprising number of actors at this off-season event, and they all manage to create distinct characters that are frightening, funny, or both.

Infernum in Terra offers a concentrated dose of nightmare fuel; if this place isn’t already on your list of must-see haunts during the Halloween season, you owe it to yourself to visit. Don’t delay – you know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions (or possibly clowns).

Cost: $15 for General Admission at the ticket booth.

Concessions: There were no concessions during our visit but Infernum often hosts local vendors.

Other stuff to do: There are photo ops outside and in the gift shop where you can purchase jewelry, glow-in-the-dark t-shirts and some of the hauntrunners’ props for your very own. There’s also a “Safe Archery” game to pass the time.

05/19/2024

At Freddy's Haunts!!!

05/12/2024

Whether your family is home-grown or something that you dug up and assembled yourself, we hope that all you mom-type things have a wonderful day. At least for a few hours, may you rest in peace.

05/11/2024

Infernum In Terra Haunted Attraction is open tonight! If you’re looking for something fun to do, we suggest you head over there for some creepy fun! We went last night and had a blast. 🤡 🧟‍♂️ 😈

YES, we’re open today!!!
May 11th 2024
4302 Jacob St. Wheeling WV 26003
Open 7:00PM - 11:00PM
TICKETS ONLY $15

04/04/2024

“Late Night with the Devil”
Cameron and Colin Cairnes, dir.
2023

Sometimes, I look back on my 1970s childhood and wonder if I was hallucinating. From the bizarre creations of Sid and Marty Krofft to the Friday night network horror movies that my mother adored (“Trilogy of Terror,” “The Initiation of Sarah”), the whole decade seemed to be on one long, bad trip. A brand-new horror film aims to capture the sensibilities and the scares of that decade through the medium of found footage.

What sets “Late Night with the Devil” apart from other found footage horror movies is its almost morbid commitment to reviving the look, feel, and preoccupations of 1970s horror. You can practically smell the cigarette smoke and Hai Karate on the set of Jack Delroy’s late-night tv talk show. The illusion is so convincing that you might even be tempted to think that you remember seeing a rerun of Jack’s ill-fated run at the late night crown. You see, according to the backstory, Jack Delroy is a talented comic and interviewer who emerged from the Chicago tv scene to challenge Johnny Carson as the king of late night. But despite Time cover stories and Mad magazine parodies, despite his talent and his drive (and, it is implied, some friends in high places), Jack never quite catches up with Carson. Instead, he’s plagued with personal tragedy, including the death of his beautiful and beloved wife, and his ratings go into freefall. In an effort to draw more eyes to the screen, Jack becomes increasingly desperate, favoring outrageous material that veers into the territory of Jerry Springer and Morton Downey Jr. Finally, during Sweeps Week 1977, Jack thinks that he’s hit upon a winning formula: he invites a psychic, a magician-turned-professional-skeptic, a parapsychologist and the possibly possessed teenage subject of her latest book onto his Halloween show to prove or disprove once and for all the existence of ghosts and demons.

Things do not go well.

In this adept, creepy movie about possession, no one is who they appear to be. Of course, viewers are immediately suspicious of 13-year-old Lilly who is the sole survivor of a suicidal satanic cult – she is just a little too wide-eyed, a little too “golly gee” in her innocence. But the other guests may be hiding something as well. The psychic Christou’s exotic accent shifts when he’s under duress. Pompous Carmichael Haig may love debunking hoaxes, but the ex-magician still enjoys his magic tricks a little too much. Dr. June Ross-Mitchell seems maternally protective of young Lilly – but what kind of mother figure writes an expose about the trauma suffered by her surrogate child? (Children of the 70s will catch hints of Uri Geller, the Amazing Randi, and Sybil amid all the polyester and burnt sienna.) Presiding over this three-ring circus is Jack Delroy, apparently genuinely curious and concerned, charming without descending into smarm. He reassures and goads each of his guests in turn, orchestrating the drama that is bound to play out when such different worldviews collide. He tries to smooth over their concerns: don’t worry about your fellow guest’s aggression; he’s all bark and no bite! Pay no attention to those restraints backstage; they’re just props. But of course, matters soon prove too much for even Jack’s expert hand. Of course, none of this would work without strong performances by the main cast. As Lilly, Ingrid Torelli stakes a claim for her inclusion in the Creepy Kid Hall of Fame. Even before her alter ego, “Mr. Wriggles,” takes over, her bright, blank affect is chilling enough to let the audience know that The Kid Is Not Alright. Ian Bliss makes a meal of every line as the sneering, arrogant Carmichael; he’s smart and smug without ever being completely unbearable. Rhys Auteri goes from “Aw, shucks” to “Aw, s**t” as Jack’s decent, hapless sidekick. But the undisputed master of ceremonies is David Dastmalchian as Jack Delroy. He has to be slick, pitiable, ambitious, and lost as he reacts to the mounting madness. Dastmalchian’s eyes are pits of darkness under the glossy swoop of his hair and you can see the beads of sweat popping out on his brow as he tries to control the chaos that he has unleashed.

The moral ambiguity of these characters points to the film’s obsession with the 70s, just as much as the distinctive fashion and corny humor. After all, the 1970s gave us the antiheroes of “The Godfather,” “Chinatown” and “The Deer Hunter.” But “Late Night with the Devil” taps another, more obvious cinematic vein. The 70s were the golden age of occult movies, from “The Exorcist” and “Suspiria” to schlockier offerings like “The Amityville Horror.” Jack Delroy’s fascination with contacting the devil is both an homage to and a result of that cultural context. Cameron and Colin Cairnes, who conceived and directed the movie, do everything in their power to reproduce the look and feel of a late-70s supernatural horror film. “Late Night with the Devil” is a tribute to the glory of practical effects. (A grotesque scene involving worms is particularly squirm-inducing.) The film also has an almost palpable sense of dread. You know that things are going to go wrong; you just don’t know when or how. The jump scares and gore are almost a relief when they finally arrive.

If the vibe, characterization, and effects work beautifully, other choices are less consistently successful. “Late Night” is a found footage film, supposedly cobbled together from a tape of Jack Delroy’s fateful Halloween broadcast and some backstage footage, but there is also a documentary-style intro to set the scene. There is a lot going on here, and it is at times, exposition-heavy. For instance, we need to know both Jack’s backstory and Lilly’s to make sense of what happens. Trying to convey all that information in a found footage format can get a little clunky. The movie also tips its hand a little too early, giving away one of its twists in all the exposition. On the bright side, the fact that this particular found footage film is set within a tv broadcast means that audiences don’t have to endure the bouncing cameras and glitches typically associated with the genre. Everything looks smooth and professional, if 70s-grainy.

Still, that seems like a minor complaint for a film that works as a time capsule – or better yet, a time machine. “Late Night with the Devil” asks if you can trust what you see – and answers that question with a resounding “No!” But even if you can’t trust what you see on the movie screen, you can enjoy it. “Late Night with the Devil” is one hell of a good time.

This film is currently playing at Cinemark theaters and at the AMC Waterfront in Pittsburgh but is scheduled to arrive on Shudder on April 19.