Late Night with the Devil (2023)

What do we see on the set? Who is the audience? What would you do for the camera? How did we get here? What's really happening? The best speculative horror asks more questions than it attempts to answer, and before we order prequels we'd do well to keep that in mind. This film is a literal set piece intercut with just enough contextual cues to bring depth and intrigue to media-textured surfaces. We slide backstage, enter cultural montage, and pass through the woods. The network '70s feel is campy and substantial, more than a little sinister, which is to say it comes correct. It's more Daniel Clowes than That 70s Show. (And btw, if you didn't catch Monica, or its predecessor, Patience, and you dig this movie, Clowes' most recent epic psychedelicate graphic novels are highly recommended.) Part of what makes this staging/framing aesthetic work so well is the judicious use of AI to mine the archive and develop interstitial back-from-commercial graphics. AI art always feels uncanny, even undead, and when we put our hands on it it comes back to life. It's obvious the creators of this film didn't just query the machine for vintage title cards to plug and play—they generated imagery and massaged it into the mise en scène. This film, as kids who don't remember the delirious tension of sweeps week say, is a vibe, and we're here for it. "Which camera should I look into" never sounded so threatening. Saw this in the theater, grinning ear to ear, and it was obvious this would work as well on the stream screen—which is some kind of trick, and some kind of treat. 5 out of 5 sacs of blood.

—J †Johnson