Aahana Swrup
‘Late Night with the Devil’ is a found-footage horror film that takes place almost entirely within a late-night show set that ends up witnessing inexplicable events over the course of one episode. Jack Delroy is a beloved late-night host whose popularity has started dwindling. Therefore, to reignite the magic in his career, he decides to put on a special Halloween episode filled with multiple supernaturally linked guests. Nevertheless, as he invites one peculiar guest—Lilly, a sole survivor from a demonic cult—things go south quickly, garnering Jack and his show the public’s lasting attention for all the wrong reasons.
The film builds an intriguing narrative that compels the viewers to discern the difference between what’s real and what’s an act for the cameras. As such, when the narrative begins slipping deeper into its own rabbit hole, it inevitably raises the stakes and a question or two. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Late Night with the Devil Plot Synopsis
After starting his career as the host of the talk show Night Owls, Jack Delroy experiences continued success. From Emmy nominations to speculation of association with successful Californian clubs, the host maintains fantastic ratings and public interest. Nevertheless, his success begins to shirk away with time until his wife Madeleine’s death, and the following hiatus plunges ratings to the ground. Still, on Halloween 1977, Jack plans to make his big comeback with a special episode lined up with one fascinating paranormal guest after the other. On the day of the episode’s filming, spirits run high on set, and so do anxieties.
Jack opens the show with Christou, a renowned psychic who performs crowd work with middling success. Still, in a surprising turn of events, he claims to feel the spiritual presence of someone named Minnie—which Jack reveals as his nickname for his wife. Next up, Carmichael Haig, a more sobering guest, joins the host and the psychic. Carmichael is a leading voice in the skeptic movement. Naturally, his whole gimmick is being an adamant disbeliever in everything paranormal—including Christou and his stunts. The same leads to some friction between the two guests. More concerningly, Christou becomes inexplicably sick during this segment until he projectile vomits black slime on the stage.
As the episode goes to commercial, things heat up backstage between Christou’s sickness and Carmichael’s accusation of planned lies. In the next segment, Jack invites June Ross-Mitchell as Carmichael’s co-guest. The parapsychologist who recently published a book works with Lilly, a teenager who was a part of the cult First Church of Abraxas. The demon-worshipping cult committed mass suicide on the day that the FBI closed in on them. Nevertheless, Lilly emerged as the sole survivor and has been working with June ever since to overcome her past.
Arguably, June and Lilly remain the most potent tools in Jack’s arsenal. However, June is uncertain about the whole thing since Lilly has been acting strangely recently. Furthermore, once the cameras take a break, the host learns that Christou mysteriously died in the back of an ambulance due to a hemorrhage. Even so, Jack stays on the path and interviews Lilly on the show as planned. As a result, Mr. Wiggles—Lilly’s imaginary friend—comes up in conversation. The idea of him “joining” the show garners such excitement from the live audience that even June has to give in. Yet, as Jack dives headfirst into television gold, the others on set can’t help but think the host is playing with something he doesn’t understand.
Late Night with the Devil Ending: Who is Mr. Wiggles? Is He Real?
From the get-go, it remains apparent that Mr. Wiggles isn’t simply a harmless, imaginary friend of a thirteen-year-old girl. As the sole survivor of the First Church of Abraxas, Lilly carries a lot of psychological baggage with her. The authorities found her as a 10-year-old child when the FBI raided the cult’s lair. As the name suggests, the First Church of Abraxas and its leader, Szandor D’Abo, worshipped the demon Abraxas. They frequently participated in human sacrifices as a part of their rituals and often kidnapped or bred children solely to use them as sacrifices. Thus, the cult caused a lot of damage to Lilly.
Consequently, now three years into her recovery, with June as her psychologist and guardian, Lilly sports an imaginary friend, “Mr. Wiggles.” Lilly believes she has the Abraxas demon inside of her, who often takes over her body when she loses control. Therefore, to make the situation more bearable, the girl refers to the demon as Mr. Wiggles. Initially, it’s easy to assume the entity to be a mind trick or a traumatic after-effect of her time with the First Church of Abraxas. Yet, the notion is quickly disproved once Lilly actually brings Mr. Wiggles out on the show.
Once Mr. Wiggles, a.k.a. Abraxas, takes over Lilly, she undergoes a noticeable physical change. During the possession, the demon shares that he knows Jack from a previous meeting and also reveals the host’s scandalous relationship with June. Although the psychologist’s exorcism methods fail, Lilly’s possession eventually fades, leaving a whirlwind of chaos backstage. Nonetheless, while June remains frustrated with Jack’s blasé attitude toward the entire thing, Carmichael grows frustrated with what he believes to be one trick after another. As such, he announces that he will disprove Lilly’s possession by performing an act of his own.
Once back on the air, Carmichael hypnotizes Gus McConnell, Jack’s sidekick on the show. As a part of his act, worms begin to crawl out of the man—a vision that everyone in the audience can clearly see. Yet, once Carmichael plays the recording of the event back, it remains evident that the cameras never saw any bugs near Gus. As such, he establishes the possibility of mass hypnosis and accuses June and Lilly of the same. Nonetheless, Lilly presents a simple rebuttal and asks for her own clip to be played back. While the clip proves that Lilly’s possession indeed happened, it also brings another revelation for Jack—who spies a spirit of his wife in the footage’s background.
What Happened to Jack’s Wife? How Did Madeleine Die?
Things turn dark once Jack spots Madeleine’s ghost in the playback footage. Initially, Carmichael’s instinctual reaction is to accuse the host of staging the entire thing. Nevertheless, that argument falls short once Lilly’s condition worsens as Abraxas’ possession returns in full force. This time, as the spirit takes over her body, it splits her head open and emerges as an entity from inside the girl. Abraxas goes on to kill almost everyone, including June, Gus, and Carmichael. In the aftermath of the horrific deaths, Jack finds himself in an unreal version of his own show.
As supernatural forces take over, the truth about Jack Delroy finally emerges. As it turns out, the public has been correct to speculate about his connections with the group known as The Grove. Jack was indeed a part of the covert “men’s club.” However, the club was really just a cover for a demon-worshipping cult—likely related to the First Church of Abraxas. Thus, the reason so many successful men were a part of the group was that they had all made deals with the devil to earn various favors. Jack, in the end, was no different.
After the Night Owls host made it big, he entered a deal with the devil to secure his promise of fame and glory. This also explains the previous claims Abraxas made about meeting the host among the tall trees. The pair initially met when Jack underwent the Grove ritual in the Californian forests. Yet, all things come with a price, and Jack paid this one with his wife Madeleine’s life. For the same reason, the woman who never even smoked contracted lung cancer. As Jack is forced to face his actions in the Abraxas’ nightmarish version of his show, he claims that he didn’t think the cult was legitimate.
Yet, the fact remains that when the opportunity presented itself, Jack didn’t think twice about trading his wife in for fame. Still, now, as Madeleine nears her death, she asks her husband to show her one final act of mercy and end her life. On his part, Jack obliges and stabs her to death. Even though this sequence is unfolding in the surreal playback of the host’s life in the show, the reality of the events remains. Therefore, as Jack relives the act of killing his wife, he inevitably confirms the fact that he indeed killed his wife in real life—both through his deal with the devil and the guilt-ridden stabbing that followed.
Was Jack Possessed? Did He Really Kill Lilly?
Things become increasingly complicated as the story nears its end, and Jack enters a bizarro version of his own show. In this process, several of his own secrets come out, with the truth behind Madeleine’s death presenting the most jarring revelation. However, an even bigger shock awaits him on the other side of the torment when he finally wakes from under the demon’s influence and realizes that he’s still at the show set. While Jack was undergoing Abraxas’ mental games, he was still in front of the camera and his live audience. Therefore, when the man had stabbed his wife, his knife had actually plunged into Lilly’s real body.
Thus, in a twisted way, Jack’s deal with the devil comes to fruition. The host’s initial deal was made for high ratings—something he kept losing out to his competition. Twice, Jack tries to use Madeleine to fix the problem—once through the initial deal and then again when he interviews her on his show after her diagnosis. Although both instances pay off, he’s still left at the bottom of the barrel. However, Abraxas ensures Jack gets his wish in his Hail Mary special episode. Since the demon compels Jack to kill Lilly in the middle of an episode, he inevitably becomes one of the most talked-about hosts of his time.
The larger public is unlikely to buy into the supernatural—despite the evidence they see throughout the show, they’ll end up pinning the blame for the episode’s eccentricities on Jack. Since Jack undergoes a psychotic hallucination and kills a teenager on his show, he would easily be brandished as a psychopathic individual. As such, it would be incredibly easy to push all the blame on the man in the end.
Consequently, Abraxas gets to reap the soul he is owed—and a few extras on the side—while wreaking exceptional havoc, all while condemning Jack to a lifetime of mortal hell. In the end, as the cops roll onto the set—likely after an audience member or crew member contacts them—Jack realizes his fate is finally sealed. Ultimately, the man receives his moral retribution and the fruit of making deals with the devil all in one hand.
Read More: Late Night with the Devil: Fictional or True Story?
