What actually happens
A ratings slump with a Halloween budget
The movie is presented as a documentary about a strange night in 1977, when the late-night show Night Owls with Jack Delroy aired a Halloween episode live. The show is struggling in the ratings. Jack, who is based in New York City, regularly visits The Grove, an exclusive California camp where rich and influential men gather. Madeleine, his wife, dies of cancer, and the show goes off the air; when Jack returns he plans an occult special to raise the ratings. His guests are Christou, a psychic, Carmichael Haig, a former magician who doubts all of it, Dr. June Ross-Mitchell, an author who studies the paranormal, and Lilly, a 13-year-old said to be possessed by a demon. Carmichael offers a large check to anyone who can prove the supernatural exists.
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Minnie, and a very bad segment break
During the broadcast Christou gets a terrible headache and a premonition about someone named Minnie. Carmichael calls it an act, and Jack steps in to explain that he privately called Madeleine by that name. Christou becomes ill, vomits a black liquid and is taken to the hospital. June then introduces Lilly, the only survivor of a Satanic church whose members died in a mass suicide after a police raid. The church's leader, Szandor D'Abo, worshipped Abraxas. Jack coaxes Lilly into talking to the entity she says is inside her, which she calls Mr. Wriggles. Once the show cuts to a commercial, Jack's producer Leo tells him that Christou has died of a brain hemorrhage in the ambulance. Lilly then levitates in her chair, and the demon mentions that it met Jack under the tall trees and that Jack and June are a couple. The possession fades and the show goes on.
Worms are the warm-up
To challenge June, Carmichael hypnotizes Jack's sidekick Gus McConnell, and almost everybody in the studio sees worms pour out of him until Carmichael snaps them out of it with the words Dreamer, Here, Awake. The crew rewinds the tape and finds that the worms were a shared hallucination, while everything that happened around Lilly is still on the recording. Jack sees Madeleine's ghost behind him in the footage, and Carmichael accuses him of staging the whole thing. Then Lilly is possessed again, near the end of the broadcast, and her head splits open and glows like lava. She kills Gus and June. Carmichael finally believes, begs for his life and offers her the check, and she burns him too. That is the scene people dread most, and it happens in the last minutes of the broadcast.
The ending, explained
Jack is pulled into a nightmare version of his own show and relives moments from its past. He learns that during a ritual at The Grove he struck a deal with the Devil, giving up Madeleine's soul in return for fame and a hit show, which makes him indirectly responsible for her cancer. Madeleine's ghost asks him to end her pain, and he stabs her with the ritual dagger that once belonged to Lilly's cult. The nightmare drops away and he is standing in the empty studio, where he realizes the person he stabbed was Lilly, and that he killed her on live television. He stays among the bodies of his guests, repeating Dreamer, Here, Awake, while police sirens get closer. The words at the bottom of the screen change from End of Transmission to So It Is Done.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: no dog dies, and no other animal does either.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Late Night with the Devil scary?
Yes, Late Night with the Devil is a 6 out of 10. It is a talk show going wrong on live television, with mild jump scares throughout and a violent last stretch.
How does Late Night with the Devil end?
Jack Delroy learns he gave his wife's soul to the Devil in exchange for fame. He stabs what he believes is her ghost, discovers he has killed Lilly, and is left among the bodies as police sirens approach.
Does the dog die in Late Night with the Devil?
No dog dies in Late Night with the Devil, and no other animal dies either.
Is there a post-credits scene in Late Night with the Devil?
No. Late Night with the Devil has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Who is Minnie in Late Night with the Devil?
Minnie was Jack Delroy's private nickname for his wife Madeleine, who died of cancer. Christou picks up the name in a premonition during the broadcast, and when Jack explains it, Christou falls ill.
