A cute but lackluster effort.
A 70s talkshow halloween broadcast with believers and skeptics of the paranormal. Definitely reminiscent of Ghostwatch (1992).
This movies strong points are the acting and period detail. I can't really criticize the performance of David Dastmalchian and co as they all did pretty good, especially when you consider the movies low budget and the fact that Dastmalchian is the only actor I recognized. The movie does a good job of making the main cast and talkshow audience look relatively accurate for the time period.
The photography is decent. They alternate with aspect ratios and even color several times. That seems to be increasingly common these days, trying to be quirky. On that topic though this is something of a found footage horror movie but they don't entirely commit to it, breaking the 'found footage' aspect to include 'behind the scenes' footage. I'm not sure that is the best idea, if you're making a found footage movie sometimes it's best to really lean into it. Given the movies short runtime I do think they opted to do this to pad the runtime.
The movies major faults are the, for me anyway, complete lack of scares and basically zero tension. The movie has a slight comedic tone to it but it never rises above slightly amusing. No nudity, a few swear words, a tiny bit of gore and practical FX but not enough to suffice. When it gets to the action near the end it just becomes silly. The ending is a bit of a mess.
The enormous praise is a mystery to me. I can only think it's because the concept is relatively unique, I mean a talkshow found footage horror movie hasn't been done to death yet.
What are we left with here? A cute 70s aesthetic, a somewhat unique setting and decent acting but it's stuck in no man's land. It's not scary, not funny, and the story isn't particularly interesting (it'll likely struggle to hold one's attention on rewatches). Maybe worth checking out as a curiosity but it's not that good. I'd give it a somewhat generous 6.
2024 horror rankings;
1. Immaculate - 6.5
2. Late Night with the Devil - 6
3. Imaginary - 5.5
4. Night Swim - 5