Psychological Thriller 'Last Night in Soho' Worked Hard to Film in This Location

Director Edgar Wright's latest horror film is about to be your next obsession. Last Night in Soho has already garnered rave reviews from critics and fans alike. The psychological thriller follows young Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie), an aspiring fashion designer in modern-day England, whose sixth sense transports her back to 1966 London in the body of a nightclub singer named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy).

However, Sandie's life isn't all it's cracked up to be, and Ellie finds herself embroiled in a race against time as the past and the present fall apart. With the film's location so central to its plot, many fans are wondering where Last Night in Soho was filmed. Here's everything we know about the flick.

The title of the film refers to Soho, a neighborhood in London's West End that is notorious for being a center of sex work, theatre, and nightlife. A Hollywood Reporter interview with director Edgar Wright reveals that most period pieces filmed in England are filmed in East London or in the northern cities of Liverpool and Manchester.

However, thanks to another famous director, Edgar felt encouraged to film Last Night in Soho in the busy Soho neighborhood from which the film takes its title. During the time that Edgar was writing the Last Night in Soho script, Quentin Tarantino was filming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood on Hollywood Boulevard, no easy feat for such a heavily trafficked area. Quentin's ability to quickly transport the modern-day street to the past gave Edgar the inspiration he needed to do the same.

Hollywood Boulevard's hustle and bustle has nothing on crowded Soho, which is described by THR as "a messy jumble of tight-knit roads wedged haphazardly between London’s theater district and its busiest shopping high street." "We went into that movie knowing how difficult it was going to be,” Edgar said of the filming process.

Thankfully, Edgar revealed that his locations team worked with Westminister authorities to secure streets for filming at night, often between the hours of 3 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Soho is never truly quiet, as several actors came to realize when they were interrupted during evening shoots.

Matt Smith, who portrays Sandie's sleazy boyfriend Jack, recalled a group of people coming out of the Groucho Club one night during filming. "And they were like, ‘All right mate! Are you coming out for a beer?’" he said. "I’m like, ‘A beer? I’m dressed in ’60s clothes, and there’s a camera over there — I’m shooting a scene, mate!"

Co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns used to work in the Toucan Pub, a key location in the film where they were also able to shoot scenes. She explained that "between takes, I’d go outside, and my old regulars would walk by, and they’d be like, ‘Oh, are you back?'"

It sounds like despite more than a few interruptions, Edgar Wright's gamble during filming has paid off successfully.

Last Night in Soho is out in theaters on Oct. 29, 2021.