Late Night With The Devil Sets Major Streaming Record

Summary

• Late Night With The Devil
  has broken records on Shudder, becoming the most watched release on the platform.
• The movie overtook the previous record-holders
  When Evil Lurks
  and
  V/H/S/99
  .
• The movie’s success, with rave reviews and approval from Stephen King, hints at a potential sequel in the future.

Late Night With The Devil crosses a major streaming milestone for the streaming service Shudder. Written and directed by the duo of Colin and Cameron Cairnes, the independent supernatural horror movie centers on a 1977 live television broadcast where an over-eager late night talk show host, in an attempt to boost ratings, unknowingly unleashes evil into the living rooms of unsuspecting viewers. Prior to its theatrical release, Late Night With The Devil reviews were overwhelmingly positive from both critics and other notable figures, including Stephen King, which in turn translated into commercial success for the horror flick.

Now, according to Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium subscription streaming service for horror, supernatural titles, and other related genres and subgenres, the found footage movie Late Night With The Devil, with its April 19 streaming debut, broke the record for the streamer’s biggest opening weekend ever. The movie has become the most-watched release on both Shudder and AMC+. It has surpassed Demián Rugna’s When Evil Lurks and the period piece anthology V/H/S/99, the two movies whose first full weeks previously held that record.

Late Night With The Devil’s Success Explained

The Movie Was A Critical And Commercial Smash

The horror release’s commercial success, and the speed at which it was achieved, shouldn’t necessarily come as a complete surprise. The low-budget movie was set up to succeed in several ways, even though it presented itself as somewhat unassuming. This includes the fact that the Late Night with the Devil cast was filled out by relative unknowns and led by David Dastmalchian, who has appeared in plenty of genre titles including The Boogeyman and The Last Voyage of the Demeter, but has been offered few opportunities to be the central star of a movie. See a full cast breakdown below:

One of the major ways it was set up to succeed was the aforementioned critical reception, which saw it receive rave reviews. One of its biggest stamps of approval came from King, the author of such towering classics as Carrie, The Shining, and It, who was given an advance screener of the film. The iconic horror author labeled the movie as “absolutely brilliant” and urged his social media audience to check it out. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the movie also currently boasts an impressive 97% approval rating, making it one of the highest-rated horror releases of 2024.

That Rotten Tomatoes score and its rave review from one of the horror genre’s most notable figures likely aided the movie’s chances of success, which ended up paying dividends. Following its theatrical premiere, the Late Night with the Devil box office earned $2.8 million in its first three days, setting a record for its distributor, IFC Films. It became IFC’s highest-grossing opening weekend ever, beating out the previous record-holder by a huge margin, which was 2022’s Watcher with a debut of $862,000. The record-breaking movie eventually earned $11.1 million worldwide.

IFC’s other highest-grossing opening weekend was the divisive 2023 experimental horror title
Skinamarink
, which debuted with $818,000.

Will Late Night With The Devil’s Success Lead To A Sequel?

Late Night With The Devil Broke A Major Box Office Record

Taking into account the commercial and critical success of Late Night With The Devil, it’s not far-fetched to assume that the Cairnes brothers, along with Shudder, might be considering mounting a sequel to the movie. Shudder has already made a habit of encouraging sequels to some of their biggest hits. For instance, their previous record-holder V/H/S/99, which was itself the fifth movie in its franchise, has already received the prequel V/H/S/85 and a seventh, untitled movie in the franchise is currently in development.

It remains to be seen how the storyline would evolve if a sequel were to happen.

While the Late Night with the Devil ending is ambiguous, it leaves its options open for a possible future for the franchise. However, it remains to be seen how the storyline would evolve if a sequel were to happen. The found footage movie was presented as a single episode of a late-night talk show that had gained cult notoriety rather than one of several instances of demonic forces being summoned on television. As such, the premise of a sequel might have to be different, perhaps exploring further cases documented by the parapsychologist June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon).

As of the time of writing, there is no concrete news regarding a sequel to the hit horror movie. However, there is every reason to believe that Late Night With The Devil might be returning to screens once again. The Cairnes brothers, who are Australian filmmakers, have never mounted a sequel to any of their previous horror titles, a roster which includes the 2012 horror-comedy 100 Bloody Acres starring Damon Herriman and Angus Sampson. However, this release has by far been their most internationally prominent and renowned, which could encourage them to see if they can keep that success going.

Late Night With the Devil is available to stream on Shudder now.

Source: Shudder