The pioneer Cannibal holocaustdirected by Ruggero Deodato in 1980, gave legitimacy to the subgenre of found footage: horror productions (although not only) in which all or an essential part of their sequences are presented as original (and real) material discovered after the death of its protagonists, thus becoming the only survivor of the events and reliable proof of what happened there.
Since then, the unique narrative technique has been almost a constant in horror cinema, but only from time to time it stands out, impetuous and playful, thanks to the talent of some filmmaker with a new and outstanding example, although without the thunderous effect of its beginnings nor, of course, the presumed inaugural naivety of the unsuspecting spectator of those days. Naughty and cunning movies like The Blair Witch Projectjust curious as Paranormal Activityor fabulous like the Spanish one [·Rec] They are the most direct antecedents of the wonderful Australian film The last late night, third feature film by brothers Cameron and Colin Cairnes. A work whose main objective is not so much to cause fear, although it has moments of overwhelming emotion, but rather to establish the bitter, cynical and brutal portrait of a television time and of the society that demanded this type of products.
The last late nightcommanded by the superb actor David Dastmalchian, tells the terrifying chaos of a record-breaking television special, in which a spirit was invoked live by the only survivor of a cult’s collective suicide. And even though the film is set in 1977, the accurate drawing of trash TV at any price is useful for later moments, until reaching the present. Thus, with its mix of formats (4:3 in color for the program itself; 16:9 in black and white for the shots that recorded what was happening behind the scenes during the minutes of advertising), the film takes us back not only to those times of success of Johnny Carson’s late-night show in the United States, but to a possible mother’s outing during a fateful night in patriotic products such as Tonight we cross the Mississippi either Martian Chronicles.
Even so, the chosen period does not seem trivial, since in those years some of the best horror works coincide with those that The last late night plays inside her (the girl possessed of The Exorcist), certain figures related to the paranormal who became famous thanks to television (Uri Geller bending spoons), satanic experts who were later immortalized by cinema (the marriage in the Warren Files saga) and the most brutal real events around the sects, violence and death (Charles Manson and his group). All of them with an essential relevance in the Cairnes film.
In any case, the film does not only live on terror, which connects in a very conscious and devastating way with a work as significant and clairvoyant as Network, an implacable worldby Sidney Lumet, with its criticism of the search for an audience at any price and its telepreachers for times of political and social paranoia, and even with The king of comedy, by Martin Scorsese, and the moments when anything can happen on a television set, leaving you speechless with laughter or sadness. Black comedy, horror and grand guignol come together in a work that only misuses its resources with the archetypal voice distortion of the possessed girl, but that also plays wonderfully with the myth of Faust: what television presenter would not be willing to sell his To the devil to surpass his great competitor after years of struggle occupying second place?
The last late night
Address: Cameron and Colin Cairnes.
Performers: David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Ingrid Torelli.
Gender: terror. Australia, 2023.
Duration: 93 minutes.
Premiere: May 24.
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