Last Night in Soho: How to Successfully Fail

By Jakob Johns | Misfit Media Columnist

Edgar Wright has had an incredible track record, with most of his films being both critically acclaimed and beloved by the average filmgoer. Most of his movies are defined by their comedic, light-hearted, and visually creative style. Edgar Wright doesn’t just film a scene; he crafts it into a living, breathing picture of fun.

Starting with his previous film, however, Wright has begun to branch out a little – which is healthy, in my opinion. While he’s always been somewhat diverse in genre, he’s always relied heavily on comedy; but, starting with Baby Driver, he’s started to diverge. Shaun of the Dead was a horror comedy, Scott Pilgrim vs the World was an action comedy, and Hot Fuzz was a comedy cop drama, but with Baby Driver, comedy took a back seat. It was fun, sure, but it took itself far more seriously, far more consistently. 

Now, Wright has done something completely new for his career: a full horror film. Not a parody like Shaun of the Dead, nor a comedy-lite like Baby Driver. There’s certainly charming moments, but Last Night in Soho is not trying to make you laugh. For once, Wright has his sights on making you feel discomfort, dread, and terror.

It’s a lot like when Jordan Peele went and made Get Out. The timing needed to pull comedy off can translate pretty well to horror, and the visual creativity obviously lends itself extremely well to creating fascinating images. As such, Get Out was a fantastic ride, as is Last Night in Soho. But, just as Get Out had its little cracks here and there, Soho has some problems that prevent it from hitting the same levels as previous films. Get Out was pretty consistently laced with terror, but every once in a while Peele wouldn’t be able to resist letting some humour leak in. Fortunately for Get Out, the humour resulted in surreal scenes that would end up being creepier due to their humour. But, for Soho, it doesn’t quite create the same feeling.

Soho has a lot of creepy imagery and extremely memorable images. The protagonist watching her counterpart from a mirror is always fantastic, and the ghosts were often pretty surreal as they flickered in and out of existence, but there’s a slight feeling of camp that keeps the movie from hitting its full stride as a horror. In Baby Driver, the humour doesn’t ever get in the way of the action because the genres don’t really conflict, but horror and comedy are exact opposites and, without proper care, they clash hard.

Now, I’m starting to bash Soho a little bit, but the point that I want to make is that, really, I’m quite ok with all this. Edgar Wright has been making comedies his entire career and decided to try something new. But, some critics have been harsh on the movie’s confused tone (and it’s certainly justified), but I think in this era of recycled filmmaking we shouldn’t hesitate to encourage people trying new things, even when it isn’t perfect. 

At the end of the day, I actually still highly recommend Last Night in Soho. The performances from Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy are a particular standout (not that Taylor-Joy isn’t always amazing) and the work of cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung should never be missed in theatres. Even if you don’t think the movie’s as scary as it could be, or if you think maybe Wright should go back to comedy, I think it’s important you vote with your wallet and remind Hollywood that experimentation is good. It’s either that, or you’re just going to end up with the same four franchises for eternity.