Last Night in Soho, released on October 22, 2021, probably to chase the halloween high, tells the story of Eloise – Elllie, an aspiring fashion designer in London. If one was to eat the movie as a cupcake, the base cake would consist of a vanilla flavored coming of age story about a girl exploring the glamorous and tempting big city life in London, frosted with zombie and murder, and sprinkled with Chung-hoon Chung’s cinematography. Eloise is introduced as a quiet girl from the countryside with a slight obsession with ‘60s London who hallucinates her mother’s presence in random places. This element is never fully explained, however, adding a slightly psychotic side to her character. During her first week, her roommate flung her underwear onto her one night out of excitement, and she decides to move out of her dorm room into an old woman’s flat.
Similar to Vertigo, the 1958 film by Alfred Hitchcock, neon lights from the advertisement boards nearby illuminate the room with various colors, creating an atmosphere which shifts with the color of the light. Both of these films also very intensely focus on one female figure, whose identity becomes blurred, also reflected through the lighting. In her dreams, Eloise travels to a different world: London in the ‘60s — her ideal world — where she is an aspiring singer who has come to London to chase her dreams. Sound familiar?
In a week, she has ended up falling into this dream world; she sees dead bodies chasing her, and as she transforms herself to become the girl of her dreams, she finds herself enjoying it. The addictive nature of her dreams, and her being addicted yet afraid of that version of herself, convinces her of the reality of her dreams: that all the men and all the crimes are real.
The awkwardly bad special effects and the overdramatic plot twist and ultimate big reveal make the audience feel like a little red riding hood, but one who is undergoing her second attack from a wolf who is wearing nothing but a headscarf. The CGI zombies and the complex lighting did not combine well in many scenes.
The film was enjoyable to watch, but the special effects fall short in comparison to the ambitious plot. Also the romantic plotline is wildly unrealistic, one would choose to believe the zombie part of the movie before the romance part.
