Late Night with the Devil (R)
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This movie could go under "supernatural horror" or possibly "psychological horror", but since it's set on Halloween, I'm putting it in my "Halloween movies" section. It starts with a documentary-style infodump about a late night talk show called "Night Owls", which began in 1971, hosted by Jack Delroy. It competes with The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, but always comes in second. There's also something about Jack being a member of a mysterious secret society that apparently performs strange rituals. And we learn about Jack's wife having died of cancer.

Most of the movie is the events of an episode of "Night Owls" broadcast live on Halloween night, 1977. Jack's contract is about to expire, and he's worried that the show could be cancelled. The show's first guest is a psychic named Christou, and the next guest is a former magician turned skeptic named Carmichael Haig, who tries to debunk people like Christou. The final guests are a parapsychologist named June Ross-Mitchell, and a 13-year-old girl named Lilly D'Abo, who is supposedly possessed by a demon she calls Mr. Wriggles. Haig also tries to debunk June and Lilly. During commercial breaks, we see backstage conversations with several people, most notably Jack's sidekick, Gus McConnell, and the show's producer, Leo Fiske.

I don't want to spoil any details of what happens on the show, but I'll say that it gets pretty disturbing. And I don't really understand the ending. I thought the movie was pretty good, but not as good as most critics seem to think it is. I wish I could think what else to say about it. I feel like it deserves a deeper reading than I'm able to give. It's certainly interesting, though.