Late Night with the Devil (2024)
Directed by Cameron and Colin Cairnes
I’m endlessly frustrated by movies that squander great potential. Late Night with the Devil is such a film—one rooted in a premise that seems tailor-made for my personal sensibilities but ultimately gives up on itself and on any adherence to its genre. On paper, it’s an amazing story—a struggling late-’70s talk show host (David Dastmalchian) tries to boost ratings by interviewing a girl supposedly possessed by the devil (Ingrid Torelli)—and at first, its “found footage” approach mostly works and offers a clever take on the form (the live studio cameras roll throughout the troubled show). But, as the night progresses, directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes steadily decrease their reliance on the found footage format, veer further into standard movie fare, and eventually abandon altogether what made their film so great to begin with. Had they chosen one style and stuck to it (whichever it was), I’d likely be singing a different tune because, story- and acting-wise, Late Night with the Devil fires on almost all cylinders. Is a redo too much to ask for?
Destroy All Neighbors (2024)
Directed by Josh Forbes
Destroy All Neighbors is one of those movies that would have made a much better 30-minute episode of Tales from the Crypt than a feature-length film. There’s a lot to like about it in its first half-hour (lines like “Rock n’ roll is about being on time” and “Doing drugs is not what rock n’ roll is all about” have successfully been added to my quote-heavy brain), but it quickly falls off the rails into an unsatisfying one-trick pony. But I love the cast, which includes “Satellite of Love” resident and fellow punk rocker Jonah Ray as failed prog rock auteur William and the always iconoclastic Alex Winter (the superior half of the Bill & Ted combo, and I don’t care what you have to say about it) as his vulgar and disgusting neighbor Vlad. I have no doubt Destroy All Neighbors will find its audience, and I sincerely hope it does because when it’s good, it hits on an almost Dead Alive level. Unfortunately, what’s good isn’t sustained long enough to justify its run-time.
The Old Ones (2024)
Directed by Chad Ferrin
Quality films adapted from the works of H.P. Lovecraft aren’t easy to come by, and Chad Ferrin’s The Old Ones is definitely not the movie to change this unfortunate truth. Why Lovecraft stories are so hard to translate to film is beyond me, especially considering the long-dead horror writer’s influence can be seen in everything from the bulk of Stephen King and Guillermo del Toro’s work to the Alien franchise and to hit shows like True Detective. Whether you know it or not, he’s everywhere where horror and dread exist, so why is it so hard for his words to make the jump to the big screen? I don’t have an answer to that, and clearly, neither does Ferrin. The Old Ones is a mishmash of Cthulhu Mythos elements balled up into one place and smashed with a big hammer until it becomes an unrecognizable paste. Perrin’s continuous name-dropping of characters, creatures, and lore adds nothing to the story and only serves to muddle the already inane dialogue further. Add to that the laughable special effects, and The Old Ones quickly becomes a contender for the worst Lovecraft adaptation to date.
James is a writer, skateboarder, record collector, wrestling nerd, and tabletop gamer living with his family in Asheville, North Carolina. He is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the North Carolina Film Critics Association, and contributes to The Daily Orca, Razorcake Magazine, Mountain Xpress, and Asheville Movies.