After the insipid Immaculate and the frightful The First Omen, it’s up to a couple of boys from Oz to resurrect any respect for the horror movie genre.

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL, an original and audacious spin on the demonic possession sub genre, has broken the US domestic box office record for its opening weekend, and hopefully will do the same for the Australian domestic box office.

Written and directed by Colin and Cameron Cairnes, LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL plays on the old Faust myth of pacting with the devil for earthly fame and fortune and taps into the roots of “reality” programming.

Set on Halloween night, 1977, in a live audience television studio, Jack Delroy is hosting ‘Night Owls’, a once hugely popular syndicated talk show. A year on from the tragic death of Jack’s wife, ratings have plummeted, and sponsors are getting nervous. Desperate to turn his fortunes around, Jack pulls out all the stops for his annual Halloween special, booking a psychic, a professional sceptic, a parapsychologist and a young girl allegedly possessed by the devil… What could possibly go wrong? Plenty.

Macabre mayhem ensues as the exploration of the paranormal percolates beneath the surfaces of fact.

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL is simultaneously creepy and comic, taking surprising turns from the funny to the frightening, the amusing to the sinister.

Starring David Dastmalchian as the demonised Delroy, there’s some devilishly delicious turns from Ian Bliss as the marvellously fruity sceptic, Carmichael Hunt, Ingrid Torelli as Lily, a sufferer of Satanic possession, and Rhys Auteri as Delroy’s second banana who has a thing about worms.

A deft simulation of Seventies screen style, LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL plays out like a visual podcast, a craftily concocted cinema verite that deals with the power of suggestion and the suspect susceptibility of the audience.