Although a global pandemic might have pushed the release of Edgar Wright’s sixth feature Last Night in Soho back a year, that hasn’t stopped him from ramping up expectations and excitement.
Thomasin McKenzie plays Eloise, a young girl passionate about fashion design, who meets her idol: a singer rising in popularity named Sandy (Anya Taylor-Joy). It’s all set in 1960s London and Matt Smith crops up to play a character named Jack, although unfortunately I don’t think it’ll be because the Doctor and the TARDIS have taken a wrong turn through space and time.
As with the fair majority of Wright films, things don’t go to plan for Eloise, Sandy and Jack. But a teaser image released by Empire earlier this week shows a very different story: perhaps it’s taken before everything goes to shit? We’ll have to wait to watch the film to find out. But Smith and Taylor-Joy dressed up in their glad rags seem happy, holding hands and running along a London street lit up at night.
In an interview with the magazine, Wright noted that “it will feel very different to my other films… But I’ve always liked films which have a slow burn into something else, and a lot of my movies have that feeling. Last Night starts in a more psychological realm and then starts to get increasingly intense as it goes along. And I always like to gravitate towards making a film in genres I miss, and there’s a certain type of psychological horror film that you got more in the ’60s and ‘70s, that have something of an operatic nature. I’m using that kind of visual grammar.”
According to IMDb, this will be Wright’s first “non-comedic” horror movie, so we probably shouldn’t set any expectations based on the Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and At World’s End) despite the tone suggested by pictures and synopsis. This looks like it’ll be more serious, and much more spooky. Anyone else need a pillow to hide behind?
Last Night In Soho will be released on 23 April 2021.
Words by Harriet Metcalfe