When Queen’s Gambit dropped on Netflix last year, Anya Taylor-Joy and her acting career skyrocketed. And while we’re all still holding out for a season two, the film gods have delivered some more Taylor-Joy-ful content. After schooling nerds on the chessboard, Anya will play a blonde bombshell and potentially murderous (???) theatre ghost from the 1960s in Edgar Wright’s new film, and I love this for her.
Last Night In Soho is a “psychological thriller” by the director of Baby Driver, Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the Dead. In it, Jojo Rabbit star Thomasin McKenzie plays Eloise, a young fashion designer who moves to the big city—Aka London—and finds herself transporting back to London’s West End in the 1960s.
This trailer is straight-up mind fuckery. Who is the real Eloise? Is Matt Smith’s character real? Why is Sandy dating Matt Smith? Do Sandy and Eloise experience the same things and is that Eloise performing or an illusion of her own mind’s making? And, as the end of the trailer ultimately leaves me with: what the fuck happens if Sandy kills Eloise? This first trailer has left me with so many questions and only one definitive answer: whatever happens, Anya looks gorgeous.
Oh, to be haunted by the ghostly murderous presence of one Anya Taylor-Joy…
Either way, folks, the trailer is giving me strong Perfect Blue by director Satoshi Kon vibes. Check it out below.
Last Night in Soho is directed and co-written by Edgar Wright, alongside Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917). This is an interesting shift for Wright since his body of work is often characterised by punchy goofy action, slapstick comedy, nonsensical plotlines, and Simon Pegg. The brightly neon reds and blues from this trailer seem heavily inspired by the Italian 1977 horror classic Suspiria, too.
The film is expected to release on the 21st of October. Anya Taylor-Joy is also set to star alongside Chris Hemsworth in a Mad Max prequel filmed in NSW. In the meantime, I’ll be preparing myself for the jump-scares by making my way through the best horror films on Netflix.
