Last Night in Soho: Edgar Wright Teases Intense Psychological Horror Film

In a new interview with Empire, director Edgar Wright teased new details about Focus Features’ forthcoming horror film Last Night in Soho, describing it as something very different from his previous films. The outlet also provided the first brief description of Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy’s mysterious characters in the film, who are set as a fashion designer and an aspiring singer, respectively.

“It will feel very different to my other films,” Wright said. “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.”

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From Focus Features and Working Title Films, Last Night in Soho will star Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie (Leave No Trace) as Eloise, Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Glass), and Emmy Award-nominated actor Matt Smith (The Crown, Doctor Who).

Plot details are light on the movie, but Wright calls it a psychological horror-thriller in the vein of Don’t Look Now and Roman Polanski’s Repulsion. Wright co-wrote the script for the film with Krysty Wilson-Cairns (Penny Dreadful). The film will take place in London’s Soho district.

“I realised I had never made a film about central London – specifically Soho, somewhere I’ve spent a huge amount of time in the last 25 years,” Wright told Empire about the movie. “With Hot Fuzz and Shaun Of The Dead, you make movies about places you’ve lived in. This movie is about the London I’ve existed in.”

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Nira Park, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Wright will produce. Focus Features and Film4 will co-finance the film. Focus Features and Universal Pictures International will distribute the film worldwide.

Originally scheduled for release on September 25, 2020, the film will now launch in theaters on Friday, April 23, 2021, domestically in North America.