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Last Night in Soho 🍸

(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me...

Adam Frazier

19 Nov 2021 • 3 min read

Welcome to Pop ‘n’ Pizza, a weekly newsletter highlighting what’s new in pop culture and pulp fiction. This week, I’m talking about Edgar Wright’s LAST NIGHT IN SOHO. 🍕🥤

Last Night in Soho

Genre: Psychological Horror / Giallo
Release Date: October 29, 2021
Running Time: 116 Minutes
Rated: R
Studio: Focus Features

Behind the Scenes

Directed by Edgar Wright
Written by Edgar Wright, Krysty Wilson-Cairns
Cinematography by Chung-hoon Chung
Music by Steven Price

In Front of the Camera

Thomasin McKenzie (JOJO RABBIT, OLD)
Anya Taylor-Joy (THE WITCH, THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT)
Matt Smith (DOCTOR WHO, THE CROWN)
Michael Ajao (ATTACK THE BLOCK)
Terence Stamp (SUPERMAN, THE LIMEY)
Diana Rigg (ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE, GAME OF THRONES)

What’s It About?

“In acclaimed director Edgar Wright's psychological thriller, Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, Sandie. But the glamour is not all it appears to be, and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.” — Focus Features

How Did We Get Here?

Italian filmmaker Dario Argento's work in the giallo subgenre, including SUSPIRIA (1977), TENEBRAE (1982), and OPERA (1987), has had a massive influence on the horror genre at large. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, giallo describes a particular style of atmospheric, Italian-produced murder mystery horror-thrillers with lavish sets, vivid colors, psychotic women, and black-gloved, knife-wielding killers.

Giallo was heavily influenced by the master of suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock’s THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956) directly inspired the first giallo film, Mario Bava's's THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1963). Likewise, Argento was inspired by Hitchcock and would later pay homage to the English filmmaker with his 2005 film DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK?

Enter LAST NIGHT IN SOHO, a neo-giallo by Edgar Wright (BABY DRIVER, SHAUN OF THE DEAD), an English filmmaker inspired by an Italian filmmaker inspired by an English filmmaker. Maybe he should’ve called it DO YOU LIKE ARGENTO?

Why You Should Check It Out

Slick, stylish, and surreal, LAST NIGHT IN SOHO is a love letter to the sights and sounds of Swinging ‘60s London, written in the candy red stage blood of ‘70s giallo.

Co-written by Wright and Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917), the film follows Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), a young girl with dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Ellie, who loves the music and fashion of the ‘60s, leaves her rural home to study at the London College of Fashion. She has trouble fitting in with her peers, particularly her overbearing roommate Jocasta (Synnøve Karlsen).

Unhappy in the dorms, Ellie moves into a one-room apartment in Goodge Place. On her first night there, she has a vivid dream in which she is transported back in time to the ‘60s. She observes a fetching young blonde, Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), meet with the charming manager of the Café de Paris, Jack (Matt Smith), about becoming a singer at the club. The following day, Ellie designs a dress inspired by Sandie.

Ellie continues having dreams about Sandie and Jack, falling deeper and deeper in love with the past. She dyes her hair blonde and changes her fashion to match Sandie’s. But then the dreams become nightmares, revealing the horrors that hide behind the glitz and glamour of Sandie’s storybook life. Those horrors spill over into Ellie’s waking life, causing the would-be fashion designer to unravel at the seams.

With sumptuous, neon-soaked cinematography by Chung-hoon Chung (IT, THE HANDMAIDEN, STOKER, OLDBOY), elegant costumes by Odile Dicks-Mireaux, and a stringy, seductive score by Steven Price, SOHO is a sexy — and spooky — psychological horror film about nostalgia’s dark alleyways and the dangers of romanticizing the past.

McKenzie, Taylor-Joy, and Smith are electric, as is the legendary Terence Stamp in a small role. It’s exciting to see Edgar Wright develop as a filmmaker; SOHO is perhaps his most nuanced, technically proficient film yet. It feels like his CRIMSON PEAK (the 2015 film by Guillermo del Toro) - an ornate ghost story where the ghosts are metaphors for a past that won’t stay buried.

I suspect SOHO won’t work for everyone — if you’re expecting a story grounded in reality, look elsewhere — but for those who share Wright’s love of hypnotic horror films like Argento's SUSPIRIA and Roman Polanski's's REPULSION, you’ll find plenty to appreciate.

Slices (Out of 5)

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Where to Watch

LAST NIGHT IN SOHO is playing in theaters and is now available on VOD.

Trailer

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