Last Night in Soho Featurette Breaks Down Film's Impressive Visual Effects

Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho impressed genre fans for a number of reasons, as its story offered its fair share of twists and turns, while also offering the filmmaker's signature and ambitious visual sensibilities. As if replicating the look of the '60s wasn't enough of a challenge, a number of sequences required some trickery when it came to reflections, as actor Thomasin McKenzie's image would appear as Anya Taylor-Joy and vice versa. In honor of those accomplishments, befores & afters has released a VFX reel from DNEG to highlight how the film pulled off those confounding sequences.

As you'll see in the VFX reel, some sequences were far more complex than others, with some merely requiring the replacement of era-appropriate facades while other sequences needed to have an entire neighborhood digitally constructed.

The film is described, "Edgar Wright's psychological thriller about a young girl, passionate in fashion design, who is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters her idol, a dazzling wannabe singer. But 1960s London is not what it appears, and time seems to fall apart with shady consequences…"   

Last Night in Soho stars Anya Taylor-Joy (New Mutants), Matt Smith (Doctor Who), Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit), Michael Ajao (Attack the Block), Synnøve Karlsen (Clique), Diana Rigg (Game of Thrones), Terence Stamp (Superman), and Rita Tushingham (A Taste of Honey).

While the visual effects are surely impressive, the lengths Wright would go to in order to capture the '60s-era Soho as authentically as possible surely won't surprise longtime fans of the filmmaker, as he's always brought an unconventional visual style to any project he's developed. History also plays an important part of the story, as he previously detailed it was his own personal experiences with the neighborhood that inspired the story.

"The idea for the movie is the result of 25 years of living and working in Soho," the filmmaker detailed to Total Film. "I spent so much time looking at the architecture, thinking, 'What have these walls seen?' And walking the streets late at night. Soho's become a lot more gentrified, but it still has that darkness just under the surface. It's one of those places where you only need to stand still for 60 seconds for something strange or magical or weird or dark to happen."  

Last Night in Soho hits 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on January 18, 2022.

What did you think of the film? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!