Filmmaker Edgar Wright has tackled most of the big movie genres, each time putting his own unique spin on familiar structures. He’s done horror, in SHAUN OF THE DEAD, action in HOT FUZZ, comic books in SCOTT PILGRIM, sci-fi in THE WORLD’S END, and even the musical, in BABY DRIVER. He has two movies out this year. One is his first documentary, THE SPARKS BROTHERS, which you can read more about here.

And then there is LAST NIGHT IN SOHO, in which Edgar Wright tackles the thriller.. with a twist. The movie stars a powerful duo: Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie in a story about a young fashion designer who slips back into the past where she faces… well, we’re still trying to figure that out. Here’s everything you need to know about LAST NIGHT IN SOHO.

LAST NIGHT IN SOHO comes to theatres on October 29, 2021.

This first LAST NIGHT IN SOHO trailer introduces Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), an eager young fashion designer who seems to have a hard time fitting in amid the London scene. At night, however, she somehow finds herself in the London of 1966, where she experiences the life of her idol, an aspiring singer named Sandy (Anya Taylor-Joy).

As if the simple fact of the time-slippage wasn't enough, Eloise begins to inhabit Sandy — or is it the other way around? The situation becomes strange and scary, and Eloise appears to be pursued or haunted by at least one mysterious figure. And who is that dapper and possibly dangerous man played by Matt Smith? The script by Wright and Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917, "Penny Dreadful") is certain to contain enough surprises to fill a 1960s nightclub.

This newer trailer shows a lot more of what happens as Eloise is drawn into her strange parallel life — so much so that we really only recommend watching the first half if you want to go into the movie spoiler-free. Still, this is a really nicely-made trailer that makes us even more eager to see the movie!

Much of the appeal of LAST NIGHT IN SOHO comes from the cast, and particularly the pairing of Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie. The two women quickly established themselves as uniquely talented and effective performers. Anya Taylor-Joy made a big impact in THE WITCH, playing the character Thomasin, which immediately gives her a strange connection to the co-star of this movie. Taylor-Joy also appeared in SPLIT, EMMA., and the series THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT — and she'll soon take on Charlize Theron's MAD MAX: FURY ROAD character in the prequel movie FURIOSA. Thomasin McKenzie broke out with a wonderfully low-key performance in LEAVE NO TRACE, then acted as a ground wire to reality in JOJO RABBIT. She'll also be seen in M. Night Shyamalan's new movie, OLD.

Then there's the supporting cast, which includes the aforementioned Matt Smith as well as  Terence Stamp, Rita Tushingham, Michael Ajao, Synnøve Karlsen, and the late Dame Diana Rigg, in her final screen performance.

Edgar Wright channels his love of movies into every film he makes, as seen in the deep horror references in SHAUN OF THE DEAD and the action movie DNA of HOT FUZZ. Wright is always able to fuse ideas from great movies of the past with his own fresh concepts and effective characters to make movies that have their own indelible identity.

For LAST NIGHT IN SOHO, Wright seems to have been inhabited by the past just as the character of Eloise is. The trailer shows the influence of classic movies like DON'T LOOK NOW, the paranoid apartment lock-in nightmare REPULSION, and BLOW-UP and BLOW OUT — two films with similar names but very different identities. The work of BLOW OUT director Brian de Palma appears to be a key influence, as are the movies of Italian horror/thriller directors Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Their so-called giallo movies, which bring twisty thriller plots to life with outrageous visual setpieces, have clearly wormed their way into the brain of Edgar Wright.

Last year, Wright told Empire that this movie will feel "very different" from his other movies. "LAST NIGHT starts in a more psychological realm," he said, "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."

Edgar Wright's movies always have terrific soundtracks. This year he is even releasing a movie entirely about musicians — that's the documentary THE SPARKS BROTHERS, which you can read more about here — and the trailer for LAST NIGHT IN SOHO suggests that the 1960s London setting will provide all the excuse Wright needs to assemble a grand sonic counterpart to the onscreen action.

While we don't know if the music in the trailer will show up in the final movie, the first LAST NIGHT IN SOHO trailer features the song "Downtown," written by Tony Hatch and originally sung by Petula Clark. Since the film's storyline straddles past and present, expect to hear quite a few period and modern classics, and very likely a few deep cuts that will turn into cult faves after they are heard in the movie. 

LAST NIGHT IN SOHO opens on October 29!

All images courtesy of Focus Features.