One review on 09 Jul 2022

UK 2021

Running time: 112 mins

Last Night in Soho

Director : Edgar Wright 

Setting: Soho, London
Summary: Eloise, first year design student in 2020, in love with 60's London finds herself going there in her vivid dreams and uncovering the darker side of swinging 60's


Cast:

  • Thomasin McKenzie  Eloise (today)
  • Diana Rigg  Alexandra (today)
  • Matt Smith  Jack (60's)
  • Terence Stamp  Lindsay (ex Copper)(today)
  • Anya Taylor-Joy  Sandy (60s)
  • Rita Tushingham  Peggy (Granny)


Colour: Colour

Sound: Mono

Tech Notes: Mono



First Seen: Sat 9th Jul 2022
Catalogued: 10th Jul 2022

Synopsis

Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) has been brought up in rural isolation by grandmother after suicide of her mother and disappearance of father. She has developed an unhealthy obsession with the swingin'sixties (granny's influence) and sees he mother in the mirror. Gets entrance to London College of Fashion.

Arriving as a naif in London today she opts out of the student flat she has been assigned and rents a bedsit from an elderly lady.

In her new room she finds herslef travelling to sixties London and observing the progress of Sandy, a new girl in London then wanting to be the next Cilla Black. Initially all is fine, but gradually things turn darker for Sandy and terrorizes Eloise who finds herself powerless to intervene.

Gradually the demons from the past start to manifest in her present reality as she appears to be tipping over into madness.

It turns out all is not as it seems and

[spolier alert]

Sandy has not been murdered but the landlady did have some skeletons (almost literally) in her closet. 

Reviews

by rogerco on Sat 9th Jul 2022 DVD proj @ home

Classic British horror/thriller

Summary

A potential modern classic, well made and well told.

Full review

The character of the naif Eloise requires a bit of suspension of disbelief (not because of the acting which is fine), but if you can accept that, this is a well crafted and cleverly told horror-thriller. Neither very horrific, nor very thrilling, but an enjoyable ride through the stresses of both modern life for a young person in the city, and of the dark underside of the swinging sixties with it's deeply embedded sexist and mysoginistic attitudes.

A couple of good twists towards the end - the first to enable you to think "I knew that" and distract you from seeing the second until it is upon you.

All in all this is up there with the very best of the genre and thoroughly modern to boot.