What should’ve been a celebratory opening weekend for the cast and crew of Late Night With the Devil has been slightly derailed by accusations that the indie horror flick includes AI-generated artwork.
Late Night With the Devil is heading into limited release this weekend with mostly positive reviews and acclaim for its leading man, beloved longtime character actor David Dastmalchian. Directed by Australian siblings Cameron and Colin Cairnes, Late Night With the Devil is a found footage riff starring Dastmalchian as a late night talk show host whose segment featuring a book author and her subject, a girl who is allegedly possessed, goes off the rails.
The film, which is being distributed by IFC, began receiving backlash this week on social media when Letterboxd user “based gizmo” posted a review criticizing Late Night With the Devil and its filmmakers for including AI-generated artwork. “There’s AI all over this in the cutaways and ‘we’ll be right back’ network messages,” they wrote. “For this reason I can’t enjoy the amazing performances and clever ending. It actually feels insulting when that skeleton message shows up repeatedly, like the filmmakers don’t give a shit and want to let you know that you’ll accept blatant AI in your 70s period piece. Don’t let this be the start of accepting this shit in your entertainment.” (I love that every website publishing an article about this is being forced to quote a social media user named based gizmo. It rules.)
Others on social media followed suit (we salute you, comrade based gizmo), specifically calling out the interstitial promos for the fake late night talk show for featuring AI-generated artwork:
It didn’t take long for Variety to get an official statement from the Cairnes siblings, who confirmed that Late Night With the Devil includes “very brief” instances of AI-generated art:
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. We feel incredibly fortunate to have had such a talented and passionate cast, crew and producing team go above and beyond to help bring this film to life. We can’t wait for everyone to see it for themselves this weekend.
The use of AI-generated artwork has justifiably remained controversial, particularly following last year’s WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, during which the use of AI in numerous areas of production became a sticking point. In a recent lawsuit filing, the original screenwriter of Road House accused Amazon and MGM of using AI to complete production during the strikes. Other rumors have suggested that AI usage in production might be more prevalent than the public previously assumed (or wanted to believe).
(featured image: IFC Films)
