Marketing ploy, mere coincidence or satanic intervention? The horror film ‘Late Night with the Devil’ (‘Late Night with the Devil’, in literal translation) grossed a bizarre number at the box office during its screening in North American cinemas on Sunday (24): US$ 666,666.
The independent feature film — written and directed by Australian brother and sister duo Colin and Cameron Cairnes — tells the story of a wave of demonic possessions in a 1970s TV show.
Information about Sunday’s fundraising was brought by the magazine Variety. To make the coincidences with the number of the beast worse, the film ranked 6th over the weekend among premieres. US$2.8 million was raised in 1,034 locations, including the supposed US$666,666 from Sunday.
The curious number went viral on social media and intrigued people. Some trusted the information and surrendered to the sinister coincidence; Others, however, were a little doubtful. “There’s about a 0% chance this actually happened haha,” said one. “I believe this is a marketing scam,” said another. “Scary”, summarized the user. “They must have stopped selling tickets when they reached that number”, suggested another. “A diabolical failure”, provoked the follower.
Despite the different premise, what caused controversy in the film was the use of artificial intelligence in some scenes.
Cameron and Colin Cairne admitted that they tested these tools in conversation with Variety. “We experimented with AI on three still images that we later edited and ultimately appear very briefly in the film,” they explained.
Even with care not to abuse, the admission caused concern among networks regarding the permitted limit. “The question is, where do we draw the line with generative AI in movies, if we allow three, then why not four? Why not five? Why not the background? Why not the music or the background actors?” asked one internet user.
Starring David Dastmalchian (‘The Usual Suspects’ and ‘Dune’) as the charismatic host of the talk show ‘Night Owls’, the production received the maximum rating in the United States for its violent, grotesque content and inappropriate language.
Check out the trailer for ‘Late Night With the Devil’ below:
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