Last Night in Soho is a 2021 British psychological horror film directed by Edgar Wright and co-written by Wright and Krysty Wilson-Cairns.[6][7] It stars Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Rita Tushingham, Michael Ajao, Terence Stamp and Diana Rigg. It marks the final film appearances of Rigg and Margaret Nolan, who both died in 2020. The film is dedicated to the memories of Rigg and Nolan.
It premiered at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on 4 September 2021, had its UK premiere on 9 October 2021 at the BFI London Film Festival, and was theatrically released in the UK and the US on 29 October 2021 by Universal Pictures and Focus Features, respectively.[8] It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its production design, cinematography, costume design, direction and performances, while its writing received some criticism. Despite this, the film performed poorly at the box office, grossing $23 million worldwide on a budget of $43 million; the COVID-19 pandemic was still suppressing total box office revenues, with theatres in the United States and Canada bringing in 60% less box office revenue in 2021 than in pre-pandemic 2019.[9] The film was nominated for two BAFTA Film Awards, including Outstanding British Film and Best Sound.
Plot[edit]
Eloise "Ellie" Turner loves the music and fashion of the Swinging Sixties and dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Her mother, also a fashion designer, killed herself in her childhood so Ellie was raised by her maternal grandmother. She occasionally sees her mother's ghost in mirrors, something her grandmother is aware of.
Ellie moves from her rural home near Redruth, Cornwall to London to study at the London College of Fashion, where she has trouble fitting in with her peers. Only John, another student, is sympathetic to her. Unhappy in the dormitory, she moves into a bedsit owned by the elderly Ms Collins.
That night, Ellie has a vivid dream where she is transported back to the 1960s. At the Café de Paris, she observes a confident young blonde woman, Sandie, inquire about becoming a singer at the club. Sandie begins a relationship with the charming Mod manager, Jack. The next morning, Ellie designs a dress inspired by Sandie and discovers a love bite on her neck.
Ellie has another dream in which Sandie successfully auditions at a Soho nightclub, arranged by Jack, before returning to the same bedsit that Ellie has rented. Inspired by these visions, Ellie dyes her hair blonde, changes her fashion style to match Sandie's, and gets a job at a pub. She is observed by a silver-haired man who recognises her similarities to Sandie. In further dreams, Ellie discovers Sandie is not living the life she had hoped for, now being pimped out by Jack to his male business associates.
In her waking life, Ellie is disturbed by increasingly menacing apparitions that resemble Jack and the men who exploited and used Sandie. After she has a vision of Jack murdering Sandie, she decides to track down the silver-haired man, who she believes is Jack. She goes to the police, but is not taken seriously so she tries to find newspaper reports about Sandie's murder. Instead, she finds stories of local men who vanished without a trace. Believing she must avenge Sandie, Ellie confronts the silver-haired man. He denies killing Sandie and leaves the pub, but is struck by a taxi and killed. Ellie's boss reveals that the man's name was Lindsey, not Jack. Ellie recalls encountering him in her dreams; he was an undercover vice officer who tried to encourage Sandie to escape her life of prostitution.
Panicked, Ellie goes to inform Ms Collins that she is leaving London. Ms Collins then reveals that she is actually Sandie. Ellie's vision of Sandie's death was actually a vision of Sandie killing Jack when he threatened her with a knife. Sandie then lured the men she was pimped to back to her room and killed them, hiding their bodies in the house's floorboards and walls
