Who killed Mr Midnight? Well, the viewers, obviously. As once- popular seventies chat show host Jack Delroy’ s ratings slump, so, he needs to do something notorious to claw them back. A psychic, and sceptic conjurer based on James Randi should (literally) do the trick.
David Dastmalchian excels as the obsequious Delroy: he’s classic sleazy TV presenter, all sharp suits, Brylcream and dreadful dad jokes, performed to rim shots by his resident house band. And Fayssal Bazzi is equally impressive as creepy psychic Christou, whose act is typical of the charismatic medium types that popped up around the seventies and eighties all the time. Then there’s young Lilly (Ingrid Torelli) survivor of a terrible cult, who pretty much blows the show apart.
The show, ‘Night Owls’ hits all the beats of yer Lettermans, Carsons and Cavetts, right down to the earth coloured decor. But it also essays and deftly satirises the gullibility of the American people in the decade before Satanic Panic, but accurately savages the time of ‘The Exorcist’, cult mania and post-Altamount anxiety. It’s also a nice study in the cynicism of ratings wars and media manipulation, suggesting little has changed since these so-called “golden years” of late night television.
Cameron and Colin Cairnes’ film works best as a satire rather than horror film, somewhat losing its edge towards the end, but it’s effective enough in the jump scares, chuckles and yuks, even if it is pretty predictable .The real demon is the television industry itself, the brothers suggest, keeping us all spellbound, passive and compliant. No shit, Beelzebub.
