Get the scoop on the streaming release for Late Night with the Devil.
After years of paying his dues with supporting roles in hit films, actor David Dastmalchian finally earned top billing for Late Night with the Devil. The critically acclaimed horror movie hit theaters on March 22.
The story concerns a 1970s late-night talk show that’s slipping in popularity. In an attempt to increase the show’s audience, a young girl who is supposedly possessed by the devil is invited on as a guest.
That’s when all hell breaks loose, perhaps literally.
When Will Late Night With the Devil be Watchable at Home?
A digital video-on-demand (VOD) release date for Late Night with the Devil has not yet been officially announced. However, the most likely window of time that it will be made available on digital is in April.
Why? A number of recent movies distributed by Shudder that also had limited theatrical releases went to VOD shortly before making their debut on the horror-focused streaming platform.
Streaming-wise, Late Night with the Devil is confirmed for a Shudder release starting on Friday, April 19, so it’s safe to say that it will officially come to digital in the weeks prior.
Additionally, the streaming prediction site WhenToStream offered “Early April” as the movie’s most probable VOD release window.
Late Night with the Devil's AI Controversy Explained
Late Night with the Devil may be a critical favorite and a decent box office success. ($2.8 million in its opening weekend on a lower-end budget). But coupled with the film’s eerie thrills and chills, it has also scared up a bit of controversy.
The uproar concerns the use of art in interstitial segments in the film which are, in context, part of the talk show that the plot focuses on. These pieces of art were created with generative AI.
Images spawned from artificial intelligence are something of a hot-button issue in many communities at the moment. The gist of the problem stems from AI art being quite unethical about the way it draws upon the data used to fabricate itself.
There’s also the argument that the pieces AI can create aren’t genuine works of art because they’re often simply created with a text prompt.
So, Late Night with the Devil utilizing this type of imagery is viewed by many as a significant cop-out. David Dastmalchian commented on the situation with Kevin McCarthy on X (formerly Twitter), noting that he stands by the film as an original work while also remarking that the AI usage is “a good conversation to have:”
“I stand by what they said and I completely stand by this movie as a thoroughly original piece of work that so many man-hours went into this incredible artistic craftsmanship to be set in this world. So it's a good conversation to have. It's an important conversation. We've got to have it.”
Late Night with the Devil is now playing in theaters.
