LAST NIGHT IN SOHO
Edgar Wright's New Psycho Thriller Sneak Peek
Last Night in Soho seems to warn its viewers to be careful what they wish for. In Edgar Wright’s return to feature films, we meet Thomasin McKenzie’s Eloise, an aspiring young fashion designer. She finds herself transported back to 1966 and in the body of her idol, a fictional singer called Sandy, played by Anya Taylor-Joy.
There’s an interesting dynamic here. While Eloise and Sandy are on two sides of a mirror but share a body, the actresses who play them are staring at each other in the mirror in real life. Taylor-Joy is still riding high from Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, Emma, etc., while McKenzie is likewise riding on the success train from recent roles in Netflix’s The King, Jojo Rabbit, etc. Taylor-Joy’s next endeavor is The Northman, while McKenzie’s next part is in M. Night Shyamalan’s Old. So as they share that same body in the film, they also share similar bodies as the freshest new faces in Hollywood.
At the beginning of the trailer, we see that Eloise is this recluse living independently in London, without many prospects except that she has a great job in fashion. When she stumbles into the 1960s, it seems her wishes have come true, but that’s not the case. Her nightmares have come alive in this eerie London. As Sandy, Eloise begins a relationship with Matt Smith’s (Dr. Who and The Crown) character, Jack, but things don’t pan out the way she thought, and things start to get dark. The line between the past and the present seems to fade as Sandy tries to break back into the present, and horrific creatures start to haunt Eloise.
We’ve already heard a haunting rendition of “Downtown” from Taylor-Joy as Sandy, making the movie’s vibe even more terrifying. The film’s lighting doesn’t help our nerves either; it’s dark with only artificial lighting from neon signs, stage lights, and street lights available to guide Eloise’s path into the past and Sandy’s to the present. It’s stylish like Wright’s Baby Driver, yet not at all humorous like his Three Flavours Cornetto film trilogy. Last Night in Soho will be his first psychological thriller, unlike anything he’s done, so it’s a little bit out of left-field, but it has promise. Plus, he had the help of veteran horror writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns, famous for her work on Penny Dreadful, in adapting his writing to the screenplay, so we’re in safe hands as far as horror goes.
Diana Rigg (Game of Thrones) and Margaret Nolan (Goldfinger), two ’60s starlets, will star posthumously, as they died this past year. James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley from Harry Potter) will also star. At this point, we’re sold on everything aspect of the film. But we do have one question while we wait until October for Last Night in Soho to premiere; will there be any Cornettos?
