Like Quentin Tarantino, Edgar Wright’s postmodern filmmaking style is heavily driven by influences and homages to existing movies. The three installments of Wright’s “Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy” are all affectionate jabs at well-worn genres and their well-worn tropes.Scott Pilgrim vs. the Worldis a bubblegum mashup of video games, comic books, and music videos.Baby Driverharks back to the visceral vehicular carnage of car chase movies likeThe DriverandGone in 60 Secondswith an added jukebox musical twist.
Despite being the director’s first foray into straightforward non-parodic filmmaking, Wright’s latest movie, psychological thrillerLast Night in Soho, is no different, including winks and nods toall kinds of horror classics. The movie theater in 1965 has posters forDr. Terror’s House of HorrorsandThe Plague of the Zombies. Eloise hides from a pervy taxi driver in the same newsagents from Michael Powell’s controversial 1960 slasherPeeping Tom.
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Wright has said since the movie was first announced that the two biggest influences onLast Night in Sohowere Nicolas Roeg’sDon’t Look Nowand Roman Polanski’sRepulsion. Released in 1973,Don’t Look Nowstars Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as a couple grieving the accidental death of their daughter whotake a trip to Veniceand begin to see apparitions of their dead child around the city. Released in 1965, the year Ellie goes back to inLast Night in Soho,Repulsionstars Catherine Deneuve as a young woman with a phobia of men who’s left alone for a few days when her sister goes on vacation with her boyfriend and begins to hallucinate men attacking her in her sleep and hands reaching out from the walls to grab her.
Homage Or Rip-Off?
Of its two main influences,Last Night in Sohoborrows fromRepulsionmuch more liberally. Its story was inspired byDon’t Look Nowin broader strokes, witha clairvoyant protagonisttrying to make sense of their haunting premonitions. The two movies have very different stories about very different characters. Teenage fashion student Ellie has nothing in common with middle-aged church-restorer John Baxter beyond grief and a touch of the supernatural.
On the other hand,Last Night in Sohois so close toRepulsionthat itcrosses over from homage into full-blown rip-off. Like Ellie, Deneuve’s Carol Ledoux is a frightened, isolated young woman surrounded by sleazy, lascivious men in ‘60s London. Wright’s movie directly lifts some ofRepulsion’s biggest scares to lesser effect. Horrifying images like hallucinations of men attacking in the middle of the night and hands coming out of the walls to grab the protagonist are much less effective with CGI. The practical effects of Polanski’s movie – paired with the originality of the ideas – make it a much more involving horror experience.
Repulsion Is An Authentic Snapshot Of ‘60s London
The immersive ‘60s production design is one of the things thataudiences and critics have responded toinLast Night in Soho. Wright’s movie is a gorgeous, vivid snapshot of London in the 1960s. ButRepulsionwas actually shot in London in the 1960s. Filmed by Gilbert Taylor, the prolific cinematographer behind the iconic imagery inStar Wars,The Omen,Dr. Strangelove, andA Hard Day’s Night,Repulsionis very much a product of its time. Taylor captures the bustling streets and smoke-filled pubs of the Swinging Sixties before confining Carol to her apartment for the claustrophobic finale.
Shaun of the Deadfollowed the familiar structure of a George A. Romero zombie film – the dead rise from their graves, society goes into a post-apocalyptic frenzy, and a band of survivors holes up in a secure location – but it put plenty of fresh twists on the Romero formula: it’s a comedy, it’s set in a British pub, and it tells the story through the eyes of two hungover slackers who slept through the undead uprising. It wears Romero’s influence on its sleeve, butit’s very much its own thing.Last Night in Sohohas so much in common withRepulsionthat it doesn’t just feel likeRepulsionis the jumping-off point; it feels like the end product, too. Audiences could save themselves the price of the ticket by staying at home and streamingRepulsionto get basically the same movie.
Last Night In Soho Doesn’t Quite Come Together
Last Night in Sohoisn’t a bad movie by any means, but it doesn’t fit into the lexicon ofthe greatest horror movies ever made. It’s an affectionate throwback to a masterpiece that does deserve to be included in that canon. Wright’s movie has style in spades, the actors give great performances, and it explores relevant themes of sexual misconduct and the dangers of nostalgia. But the script can’t quite pull it together and those themes and the plot fall apart in the final act.
Repulsionis a taut piece of cinematic terror with airtight character-driven plotting, ample frights, and timeless filmmaking.Last Night in Sohoisa perfectly well-made psychological thriller, butRepulsionreally sinks its hooks into the viewer’s psyche.
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