Halloween night is the time when the veil between the world of living and the dead is at its thinnest. Jack Delroy, the host of a late-night show, decides to run a Halloween special episode titled “Late Night with the Devil.” In this very show, Lilly appears as the only survivor of the mass suicide of a cult that worshipped the demon, Abraxas. Assuming you’re here after watching the movie, let’s jump right into Lilly’s origins and her eventual fate.
Spoilers Ahead
What happened at the First Church of Abraxas?
Szandor D’Abo founded the infamous first Church of Abraxas and led its followers. The cult was known for breeding children for sacrifice, and that led to the FBI raiding it. The followers refused to bow down to the authorities, and they set the church on fire. The mass suicide killed everyone inside the church, and only one 10-year-old girl survived the fire. The FBI was astonished to see that the girl sometimes seemed possessed, and they couldn’t make sense of it.
How does Lilly end up with Dr. June Ross-Mitchell?
Dr. June Ross-Mitchell is a parapsychologist and the author of the bestseller “Conversations with the Devil.” She gets asked by the FBI to conduct her research on Lilly, who has apparently been possessed by the demon Abraxas. June took Lilly in and made quite a bit of progress with her Lilly, and she got a hold over the episodes of possession. Three years later, the duo is called as guests in Jack Delroy’ Halloween special episode to promote June’s book. Christou, the self-proclaimed medium, spent his last breaths on the sets of this show while vomiting slimy black substances. It’s clear that the supernatural arrived at the party when Christou died.
How does Lilly know Jack Delroy?
Jack interviews Lilly and June for a bit before asking Lilly to demonstrate her possessed self. June and Lilly take the center of the stage, and soon, her childlike face turns into a hideous one. Lilly asks Jack if he remembers the meeting they had in the woods. This implies that Jack’s participation in the satanic rituals of “The Grove” must have been when he met Abraxas. Jack seems to recall nothing of that sort, and Lilly keeps getting worse and worse while she’s possessed. She finally levitates in thin air before getting back to normalcy.
Was Lilly actually possessed by Abraxas?
After Lilly sits down for the interview again, the skeptical Carmichael Hunt questions the legitimacy of her and June’s act. Carmichael goes one step further and hypnotizes almost everybody to show a little worm trick himself. Lilly accuses Carmichael of being ignorant and condescending. Jack Delroy asks his camera crew to play the tape again, and they see the changes in Lilly’s body when Abraxas took over– Mr. Wriggles does exist inside her. But the most shocking thing wasn’t even the question of the legitimacy of this, but the ghost of Delroy’s wife, Madeleine, standing just behind him in a frame. Lilly broke the barrier that separates the worlds of the living and the dead, and in turn, Madeleine’s spirit decided to see her husband for once.
Why does Delroy kill Lilly?
Jack Delroy was a man who spent his life trying to match the viewership levels of another late-night host, Johnny Carson. Carson was an iconic late-night show host, and it’s understandable why Delroy’s dumb jokes couldn’t ever match up to his. It’s quite understandable that after attaining some initial fame, Delroy wanted to make it big. So he chose to join “The Grove” and perform their Satan worship rituals to become a bona fide star. He does manage to get all that, but not without the cost of his beloved wife’s life. Jack’s behavior suggests that he actually loved her and didn’t know how he sacrificed her in exchange for fame and stardom. When Abraxas takes over Lilly for the second time, she kills June, Gus, and Carmichael, and burns his half-a-million-dollar check. The producer of the show escorts Delroy out of the set, but he goes into a trance and through a chain of hallucinations. Delroy finds Madeleine on her deathbed, begging him to free her from the pain. This scene might represent the actual time when Delroy indeed killed his wife. He does the same thing again, but the hallucination stops, and he finds that he has stabbed Lilly to death. Lilly survived a fire that killed everyone, and it appears that Abraxas knowingly kept her alive. Lilly was only brought up to be the second sacrifice Jack makes to Abraxas, and his life comes full circle by doing so.
