Cineverse's tricks and treats filled horror/comedy Haunted Ulster Live is currently streaming free with ads on Tubi and Roku. The Halloween-set found footage film was originally released across all platforms, including Bloody Disgusting’s SCREAMBOX streaming service, on October 8th.
SYNOPSIS: On Halloween, a Northern Ireland TV veteran teams up with a popular new children’s presenter to investigate poltergeist activity in a reputedly haunted house in Belfast. Light entertainment turns to horror when an unseen terror reveals itself.
The feature debut of writer-director Dominic O’Neill, the UK found footage film stars Mark Claney, Aimee Richardson, and Siobhan Kelly. O’Neill produced with Will McConnell, Rika McGowan, Paul Sinacore, and Tyler Dane Sutton.
"We’re found footage fanatics, and devotees of the genre will hopefully enjoy the faux doc chills of Haunted Ulster Live," says O’Neill. "We grew up on old Irish and British horror TV, the kind of TV that makes you want to hide behind the couch when you’re a kid! Our film is firmly rooted in ‘90s Belfast, drawing from the rich well of Irish folk stories and the conflict of that time."
"Since our world premiere at Frightfest London, the response to the film has been phenomenal," adds McConnell. "We’re delighted to work with Cineverse, Screambox, and Bloody Disgusting to bring Haunted Ulster Live to North American audiences. This is our first feature, and it wasn’t easy, so it’s an incredibly proud moment for us and hopefully the start of more to come!"
Trailer:
Reconstruction movie clip:
Dominic O'Neill interview for HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE at FrightFest 2023:
HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE director Dominic O’Neill on the story behind his FrightFest First Blood film:
Dominic O'Neill Interview on Directing HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE, Halloween in Ireland, and More:
"Inspired by the iconic BBC series Ghostwatch, think Ulster TV meets The Blair Witch Project in Dominic O’Neill’s fusion of traditional Irish storytelling and folk horror suffused in an atmosphere of 1960s British and American horror."
Jack-O's Review:
"If you like Ghostwatch this is exactly like that film. If you found Ghostwatch boring you will find this boring. Nothing really scary, I wish it had more horror elements, it's not laugh out loud funny, I had a chuckle here and there. WNUF Halloween Special and Late Night with the Devil has the same concept but are better in my opinion. I love Ghostwatch and it's backstory so I'll give this ★★★ stars as well."
"In order to work, the audience needs to be well-versed in the lore and broadcast of Ghostwatch [...] Although lacking the star power or real transmission components of Ghostwatch, Haunted Ulster Live has a lot of fun with its scenario. Its reliance on the audience being media literate might leave the uninitiated bemused, but for those who are keyed into the joke, Dominic O’Neill has made a rip-roaring good time." ★★★ TheHollywoodNews.com
" …the story takes some really unexpected twists and turns in the third act, and for my money, that just might be the best thing about this movie. I was on the absolute edge of my seat for the last 20 minutes or so, and my eyes were completely glued to the screen as I learned what was really going on here. That great third act cements Haunted Ulster Live as a worthy new addition to the haunted house subgenre…" HorrorObsessive.com
"An evocation of what TV used to look like, it also weaves in threads about the way the media were going – with some very tiny flash-forwards to suggest the aftermath of the events and also set up a couple of clever reversals. It has a Nigel Kneale-like attitude to what ghosts might actually be, though it takes the trouble to build an air of menace in the house – where, from the first, we get a sense that putting this psychodrama on television to share with the viewers at home is a very bad idea." JohnnyAlucard.com
" …has an awareness of its own derivativeness built in. "I know youse want to recreate this night for laughs," one character will say, "but this actually happened to me." It is that slippage between popular entertainment and lived experience, between creepy comedy and personal tragedy, that creates the contradictory layers of meaning in O’Neill’s film, where what Gerry speculates may be "a double haunting" will turn out to be rather more involuted." ProjectedFigures.com
"Haunted Ulster Live is nice to watch, its duration is more than adequate and it has good moments inside, but in the final balance, it gives the sensation of wanting to be very brainy and complex without having worked enough on it." TerrorWeekend.com ★★½ [translated from Spanish]
"While I can’t judge how well he recreated late 90s Irish TV O’Neill does do an excellent job of making the viewer feel like they’re watching a live TV show that’s going more and more off the rails as it progresses. Haunted Ulster Live starts out as enjoyably spooky Halloween entertainment and becomes progressively more frightening as it goes on. The last act lets loose and delivers a twist I certainly didn’t see coming." ★★★★ VoicesFromTheBalcony.com
Joe Bob’s Beelzebub Bash: A Halloween Hellfest Double Feature! 🎃 LIVE Special Premieres Tonight Friday, October 25, 2024 9pm EST. Joe Bob and Darcy are bringin’ in not one, but TWO special guests. Watch it live on Shudder TV and AMC+ TV. Catch it On Demand beginning Sunday, October 27. I'll update the post later with both movies shown.
@therealjoebob posted on Twitter the second guest will be:
My buddy David Dastmalchian will become one of the few people willing to guest on #thelastdrivein and then return for a second shot this Friday night at 9 Eastern/6 Pacific on Joe Bob's Beelzebub Bash, our annual Halloween double feature. pic.twitter.com/ndl2C9XGf1
Japanese chirashi flyer (front & back) and Blu-ray/DVD disc labels:
Portuguese DVD cover:
Spanish DVD cover:
TV Promo Teaser:
Teaser Trailer:
Official Trailer
An Unmarried Man With a Wedding movie clip:
Vomit Scene:
Mr. Wriggles movie clip:
Talking to the Devil movie clip:
Hypnotize Scene:
Lily attacks scene:
Ending Scene:
David Dastmalchian talks new movie:
Interview with Actress Ingrid Torelli (Lilly D’Abo):
WIKIPEDIA: Late Night with the Devil is a 2023 supernatural horror film written, directed, and edited by Colin and Cameron Cairnes. It stars David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli, Rhys Auteri, Georgina Haig, and Josh Quong Tart. Incorporating elements of "found footage" and documentary filmmaking, the film follows the events of a late-night talk show episode aired on the night of Halloween 1977, during which the host attempts to boost ratings by inviting an allegedly possessed girl onto the show.
IMDb STORYLINE: October 31, 1977. Johnny Carson rival Jack Delroy hosts a syndicated talk show 'Night Owls' that has long been a trusted companion to insomniacs around the country. A year after the tragic death of Jack's wife, ratings have plummeted. Desperate to turn his fortunes around, Jack plans a Halloween special like no other, unaware he is about to unleash evil into the living rooms of America.
An international co-production of Australia, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates, Late Night with the Devil had its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) on 10 March 2023. It was released theatrically in the United States on 22 March 2024 by IFC Films and in Australia on 11 April. The film grossed $15 million and received positive reviews from critics.
PRODUCTION: Production on Late Night with the Devil was announced on 13 February 2022, with the Emirati studio Image Nation and the American genre label Spooky Pictures attached. Describing their decision to base Late Night with the Devil on a late-night talk show, writer-director duo Cameron and Colin Cairnes stated: "In the '70s and '80s, there was something slightly dangerous about late-night TV. Talk shows in particular were a window into some strange adult world. We thought combining that charged, live-to-air atmosphere with the supernatural could make for a uniquely frightening film experience."
The Cairnes brothers offered the role of Jack Delroy to David Dastmalchian after reading an article Dastmalchian wrote for the magazine Fangoria about regional TV horror hosts. Dastmalchian accepted the part after being sent a lookbook designed to resemble a 1970s TV Guide, along with the film's script. Dastmalchian's casting was announced on 24 June 2022.
Late Night with the Devil was shot in Melbourne, Australia. The film utilizes practical special effects, including puppetry, along with digital visual effects.
RELEASE: Late Night with the Devil had its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) on 10 March 2023 in Austin, Texas, where it played as part of the festival's "Midnighters" section. That same month, horror author Stephen King was provided with an advance screener of the film and tweeted, "It's absolutely brilliant. I couldn't take my eyes off it. Your results may vary, as they say, but I urge you to watch it when you can." The film screened at the Sydney Film Festival from June 9–15 of 2023. In October 2023, IFC Films and Shudder acquired the distribution rights for North America, United Kingdom and Ireland.
BOX OFFICE: The film opened on 22 March 2024 in 1,034 theaters in the United States and Canada, and earned $2.8 million in its first three days, the best opening weekend for an IFC Films release; additionally, media outlets noted that the total included an estimated $666,666 gross on its third day. Expanding to 1,442 theaters the following weekend, the film made $2.2 million, finishing in seventh.
HOME MEDIA RELEASE: RLJ Entertainment released the film on Region A Blu-ray + DVD Steelbook on Sep 10, 2024 followed by single disc Region 1/A DVD and Blu-ray releases on Oct 08, 2024 in the USA and Canada.
Umbrella Entertainment released two Collector's Edition's on 04 September 2024. The first with Region B Blu-Ray +VHS +TVGuide +Book +Rigid case +Poster +Artcards and the second with Region B Blu-Ray +Book +Rigid case +Poster +Artcards. A single disc Region B Blu-ray was also released on this date.
There are many fan made bootleg VHS releases of the film for sale online but Witter Entertainment will officially release the film on a Glow in the Dark VHS cassette on October 28, 2024.
RECEPTION: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 224 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Delightfully dark, Late Night with the Devil proves possession horror isn't played out – and serves as an outstanding showcase for David Dastmalchian." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Variety's Dennis Harvey commended the film's production design and technical aspects, as well as that of the cast, and wrote that the film's "mix of vintage Me Decade showbiz cheese and Exorcist-y demonic doings is distinctive, not to mention deftly handled by the [Cairnes] brothers as both writers and directors." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com praised the film as inventive and its use of the found footage format as clever, and highlighted Dastmalchian's "phenomenally committed performance [...] really holding the film together as he finds the right tone between smarmy and likable that dominated so much '70s culture."
Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting gave the film a score of three-and-a-half out of five, criticizing the film's pacing as rapid but writing that "the ingenuity, the painstaking period recreation, a riveting performance by Dastmalchian, and a showstopper of a finale make for one Halloween event you won't want to miss." Trace Sauveur of The Austin Chronicle also praised Dastmalchian's performance and called the film "totally gimmicky, but the sincere commitment to the conceit is what really makes this work." Sauveur adds that, despite finding the film's conclusion lacking, "Late Night with the Devil is able to mine plenty of effective and fun ideas out of its premise, and it works as a potent examination of the price of success."
Mark Kermode of Kermode and Mayo's Take called it "really enjoyable", adding that he thought it was influenced by the 1992 British mockumentary supernatural horror TV film Ghostwatch.
Wendy Ide of The Observer gave the film a score of four out of five stars, praising its satire and comedic elements, calling it "smart, cynical and at times devilishly funny, the film delivers a crackle of disruptive static to the demonic possession genre."
John Lui of The Straits Times gave the film 4 stars in which he describes the film as "Comedy, horror and homage come together in style in this hugely enjoyable work". He also said that Colin Cairnes used to work and live in Singapore, where he directed episodes of local sitcoms Under One Roof (1995 to 2003), Brand New Towkay (2001 to 2002) and Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd (1997 to 2007).
Tay Yek Keak of 8days gave the film 3.5 stars, in which he also mentions Colin's work on Under One Roof and Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd and says "Can these Aussie bros turn Phua Chu Kang into a really kicking horror flick too?"
USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: In the week leading up to the film's release, some reviewers pointed out the use of AI-generated art in a montage, which was not present in the version screened at SXSW, and called for a boycott of the film. In response to the controversy, directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes said: "In conjunction with our amazing graphics and production design team, all of whom worked tirelessly to give this film the 70s aesthetic we had always imagined, we experimented with AI for three still images which we edited further and ultimately appear as very brief interstitials in the film." Star David Dastmalchian said: "So I think [Cameron and Colin] said it really well, and I stand by what they said and I completely stand by this movie as a thoroughly original piece of work that so many many 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."
Flashback to Halloween night 1977, for this ghoulish double feature! Right smack in the middle of @shudder's #HalfwayToHalloween, they take you back to UBC's late night two-for of 'Monster Shock Theater with Martin Monster' and 'Night Owl's with Jack Delroy!' Now this ended up being a very fateful night for our old buddy Jack....but FIRST, we had a hell of a good time Monstering it up! Be sure to watch this long lost archive material below before the film.
It's a spooky time, with variety act performances from tap dancing sword swallower @ginminsky, magician extraordinare @cardonemagic, Martin Monster's top Horror Movies of 1977, and of course our special guest, Mr Midnight himself, Jack Delroy! It was a shockingly good time! Packed with surprises, it’ll make you feel like you’re right in the 'Night Owls' audience!
Watch The Monster Shock Theatre with Martin Monster | Late Night with The Devil Experience Pre-Show:
Watch Night Owls with Jack Delroy 1977 Halloween Special - Live Broadcast taped on VHS with 1970's era commercials:
![[FILM REVIEW] HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE #Horror #FoundFootage #HorrorFilm #FilmReview](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/craCB2O2u7E/hqdefault.jpg)
