Edgar Wright Shares How the Mirror Shots in LAST NIGHT IN SOHO Were Inspired by POLTERGEIST III
I really enjoyed Edgar Wright’s use of mirrors in his horror film Last Night in Soho. He pulled off some pretty cool shots with Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie and the mirrors, and he actually did it practically! Some of the things utilized to pull these shots off includes maneuvering, ingenious blocking, a double set, and identical twins.
In a recent interview with Fangoria, Wright opened up about the mirror shots in the film and also explained how they were inspired by the awesome mirror shots in Poltergeist III. He said:
“I think people assume that all effects in films are achieved digitally now, but I wanted at least some of the mirror scenes to involve Thomasin and Anya actually standing opposite each other doing choreography—really sharp choreography by Jennifer White. We also designed these bits to be in long, unbroken takes, because it was important for the scenes to be immersive, in the sense that you're seeing the film through Thomasin as Eloise's eyes. I wanted the shots to reflect that as well, so we didn't break the spell; when maybe an audience would start to think, 'How the hell are they doing this?' it would be the same as Eloise saying, 'What the hell is happening?'
So how does Poltergeist III play into all this? Well, Wright needed to pull off these shots in-camera and make it convincing. As you know Gary Sherman's Poltergeist III featured several impressive mirror shots, so Wright reached out to Sherman to help him figure out the illusion he was looking for. Sherman was happy to help. Wright went on to say:
“His film "Poltergeist III" is chock full of amazing mirror shots, and there were one or two where we were sitting around trying to analyze how they were done, and that we couldn't quite figure out. And I thought, 'Well, I know Gary Sherman,' so I e-mailed him and said, 'Hey, this film I'm doing has a lot of mirror shots in it. I was wondering if we could pick your brain,' and he said, 'Sure!' So one afternoon, Gary, who I just saw the other night at the L.A. premiere, did a little tutorial with our crew. It was the best extended lunch break on a Friday; it was like, 'Hey, guys, if you want to gather in the meeting room, Gary Sherman is going to talk us through the shots in "Poltergeist III!" [Laughs] It was about as geeky an extended lunch meeting as you could possibly have!”
That’s pretty cool and they obviously got the education they needed because they managed pull off those mirror illusions and shots in the film perfectly. Wright made another great film with Last Night in Soho, and if you haven’t watched it yet, you should!