Late Night with the Devil 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Late Night with the Devil 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

The graveyard shift.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III October 5, 2025

Colin and Cameron Cairnes' Late Night With the Devil is a fairly ambitious indie horror film that belongs to the ever-unsteady subgenre of "found footage", as it's built around an uncut master tape from the struggling 1970s talk show Night Owls; specifically, their '77 Halloween special gone awry. Hosted by affable Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian, in fine form), it features guests such as psychic Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), the James Randi-esque magician-turned-skeptic Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), and finally, parapsychologist June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and her young ward Lilly D'Abo (Ingrid Torelli), who's basically Regan from The Exorcist. Spliced with black-and-white behind-the-scenes footage and preceded by era-specific exposition narrated by Michael Ironside, Late Night With the Devil gradually morphs into full-on chaos that may or may not have its poor host and first-time viewers questioning their own sanity.

For a fuller synopsis and critique of Late Night With the Devil, head on over to Brian Orndorf's 2024 review of RLJ Entertainment's Blu-ray/DVD Steelbook, which was later succeeded by RLJ's standard Blu-ray edition as well as a pair of 4K import packages from Second Sight and Capelight Pictures, the latter boasting HDR10/Dolby Vision presentations and all featuring different bonus features. This new 4K/Blu-ray combo pack from IFC Films, then, seems like a day late and a dollar short, limiting its transfer to SDR and actually serving up fewer extras than RLJ's Blu-ray, which is really unfortunate since it's obviously the version that most domestic fans will likely be familiar with.

Late Night with the Devil 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

NOTE: These screenshots are sourced from the included Blu-ray disc.

The elephant in the room is that IFC Films' 2160p/SDR transfer does not mirror the HDR10/Dolby Vision transfer seen on both of the readily-available 4K import packages from Second Sight (UK) and Capelight Pictures (Germany), which may be an immediate deal-breaker for fans looking to "upgrade" from RLJ Entertainment's Blu-ray. (Bear in mind that the film wasn't necessarily shot with HDR in mind, so take any associated criticisms with a grain of salt.)

But that quoted word above is unusually important in this case, as Late Night With the Devil's convincing faux-1970s veneer rarely looks to emulate 4K visual perfection. (The found footage is purported to be from a "master tape", which is clearly digital in origin with added sweetening to resemble a pristine analog source that's occasionally interrupted by tracking issues and similar anomalies directly related to certain on-screen actions.) Other segments like the black-and-white "behind-the-scenes" clips look more filmic in nature, while much grungier stock footage can be seen during the opening montage. Where this 4K presentation excels, even without HDR, is that its tighter appearance and beefier bit rate help to separate these elements more strongly because, at their best, they really do look impressive. However, I also appreciate the Blu-ray's more unavoidably homogenous appearance due to its lower resolution... and while I can't say for sure which version I prefer, it's nice to have both options at once. Even so, the 4K's lack of HDR makes this a much closer relative to the existing Blu-ray than any other UHD edition, for better or for worse.

As implied earlier, the included Blu-ray disc -- which is where these screenshots were taken from -- looks basically identical to the existing RLJ release linked above; it's not the exact same disc due to at least one difference below, but I'd be surprised if it were anything other than a straight port of the same source material and disc encoding.

Late Night with the Devil 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All home video versions of Late Night With the Devil to date have featured a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio (48kHz, 24-bit) mix so, since they undoubtedly offer the same overwhelmingly solid sonic merits, please refer to Brian Orndorf's 2024 review of RLJ Entertainment's Blu-ray/DVD Steelbook for more details. In short, it's a very effective surround mix that, like most films that attempt to visually emulate low-budget material from the 20th century, doesn't go all-in on audio authenticity by aiming for something more modern with discrete channel pans and other surprises.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only, not the extras listed below.

Late Night with the Devil 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This two-disc release ships in a glossy Steelbook with a slick and artful monochromatic illustration of host Jack Delroy peering out from behind the stage curtain, whose light pattern divides the image like a knife blade. The back features a close-up of Lilly mid-possession with a foreboding quote from the show, while the interior spread keeps the all-bronze color scheme going with a still image of Jack and parapsychologist June comforting Lilly. A promotional insert is tucked inside and both discs sit on overlapping hubs on the right side. All things considered, it's a pretty nice presentation and quite a bit more subtle than the earlier Blu-ray Steelbook. Speaking of which, three of the extras from that release are carried over here and detailed in the linked review... although sadly the faux program "Monster Shock Theater" isn't even included, which makes the Second Sight 4K edition and other import options all the more attractive.

• Audio Commentary - With actor David Dastmalchian and producer Leah Kilpatrick.

• Q&A (20:22) - With co-writers/co-directors Colin and Cameron Cairnes.

• Behind the Scenes (4:11)

Late Night with the Devil 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Colin and Cameron Cairnes' Late Night With the Devil is an ambitious but certainly not totally successful found-footage horror film. It's hampered by uneven pacing and a truly unnecessary introduction (as much as I love Michael Ironside), but the lead performance by David Dastmalchian and chef's-kiss production design (including on-screen graphics) do a lot of heavy lifting to help it at least feel fairly legitimate at crucial moments. In all honesty, though, there's not enough here to comfortably fill a 90 minute timeslot, and IMO it could have been tightened up dramatically to be a drop-dead standout on any installment of V/H/S where its late 1970s setting would've fit in. IFC Films' belated 4K Steelbook runs smooth enough but, given its visual design and a lack of HDR, viewers won't see as many improvements as either of the UHD import packages from Second Sight and Capelight Pictures, both of which also have more extras.