On the 22nd of March of 2024, the low-budget horror film known as “The Late Night with the Devil” directed by the brothers Cairnes was released, being shown to be one of the most unique horror films of the year with a very distinct personality and aesthetic compared to other films of the same genre, especially as it takes reference from the Talk Shows we all love and makes a turn into a frightful experience for both the protagonist and the audience.
The film has an amazing mix of comedy and spookiness, with an amazing performance by David Dastmalchian. He is an actor that feels as though he was made to perform in horror films. With such an interesting and effective approach to participating in horror films, his part as late-night host Jack Delroy was eye catching. He is the clear highlight of the film and carries the whole plot in his back with a hypnotizing climax on the last 10 minutes of the movie.
This movie is about how fame corrupted Jack Delroy, and how on one Halloween night during a Halloween special for his show everything that can go wrong, goes wrong. From exorcisms to talking with the dead, this film has everything on its side to become an instant horror classic receiving a large approval from both critics and audience. But the main talk about this film was not about the plot, characters, or visuals, but something far more important in the whole film industry and in the world: the use of AI in creative fields.
The film features little breaks between scenes, resembling the ad breaks in TV shows. Part of this sparked a huge controversy which was that some of the images shown in these breaks are AI-generated, which can be clearly told by how the art style can seem inconsistent and just has that “AI look” to it. The debate surrounding the use of AI in films, as well as a boycott by audiences who opposed it, was one of the most talked about aspects of the film.
As a film with a low budget, it is easy to forget the issues that can arise with the financing aspect of the movie as well as how expensive it is to produce any movie now. Many audiences and critics have mentioned this as an argument to not hate the movie just because of its involvement with AI, but I believe that allowing and giving a blind eye to these small uses of AI in films will show others that it is okay to replace human work with artificially generated content.
As we approach an ever-expanding technological era, people have been trying to use these tools in everything, from music and movies to literature and essays. I find it a complete insult to the arts and creative fields to try to replace what should be human made in a film with something generated by a robot, but the worst part is not that, but the lenience people have towards this. Showing that we accept this will only mean for other studios that it’s okay to replace these works and cut costs by using AI-generated images. These small jobs can be the foundation for a job for many graphic designers even if it’s a graphic that is shown for 10 seconds, but if we cut this just to save a few bucks we are making it impossible for others to start in their careers of creativity.
Art is valuable because it takes years to master, and it has a soul. Art that is easily created by something without a soul takes away its significance and using it on what is one of the highest forms of art, which are movies, seems hypocritical and a complete disregard towards the field you are in.
Please continue supporting artists and be aware of AI in every media you consume. Music, movies, video games, paintings, and everything creative has value because someone made it. Someone spent years working on it and perfecting their skills, even if you disagree with it or find it distasteful, it is a voice and it shows the human behind it, and that itself makes it priceless.
