Edgar Wright’s Last Night In Soho features a polarizing twist ending which some audiences have claimed detracts from the film’s message – an opinion with which the film’s co-write disagrees.
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Nobody deserves to be taken advantage of, and unfortunately, there are people who do desperate things when they have no other choice. However, the aforementioned twist almost comes out of almost and doesn’t redeem or justify the Sandy character the way it could.
In fact, it makes her look worse.
However, before getting to that: if you haven’t yet seen the movie and don’t want to know what its twist is, beware of spoilers from here on out.
If you are interested and want to keep reading, here we go.
Spoiler Warning in Soho
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Clairvoyant main protagonist Ellie played by Thomasin McKenzie thought she saw Sandy’s murder at the hands of her pimp (Matt Smith). It turns out Sandy actually killed him and proceeded to off all the johns that victimized her, hiding their bodies in the floors and walls of the room Ellie was renting.
The young tenant soon figures out that Sandy is not only alive but has been her landlady, Mrs. Collins, all this time.
In other words, the murderer was the old lady no one would suspect – kind of like in Dario Argento’s Deep Red, an obvious influence – who went down a dark path of revenge wanting no redemption or salvation.
More than that, Ellie refuses to help the ghosts of the missing johns pleading for her help.
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Separately or altogether, these elements don’t quite communicate the positive message of female empowerment Wright was going for a, but the film’s co-writer, Krysty Wilson-Cairn, disagrees.
Moreover, says the scribe, not only did she think the above twist displayed a great deal of empowerment and empathy in Sandy’s arc, but that it was presented as originally envisioned.
“That original twist was always there, and that was, for me, the key idea to the female empowerment,” she said to IndieWire during a recent interview. “I had never seen a villain like that before. I’d never seen a villain where I don’t agree with what she does, but I empathize with what she does. That was such a crucial element that hooked me in. I think without that twist, I might not have been as interested in the film.”
Last Night In Soho releases for digital-on-demand purchase today, November 19th – a possible sign that general interest in the film is waning.
What do you make of Wilson-Carin’s outlook on Last Night In Soho’s twist? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!