{"id":6433,"date":"2021-10-29T10:03:04","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T08:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1482687"},"modified":"2021-10-29T10:39:11","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T08:39:11","slug":"last-night-in-sohos-krysty-wilson-cairns-on-tackling-tough-themes-in-horror-toxic-masculinity-really-frightens-me","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/last-night-in-sohos-krysty-wilson-cairns-on-tackling-tough-themes-in-horror-toxic-masculinity-really-frightens-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Night in Soho\u2019s Krysty Wilson-Cairns on tackling tough themes in horror: \u201cToxic masculinity really frightens me\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 29 October 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Before Edgar Wright\u2019s new film Last Night in Soho<\/a> premiered at the Venice Film Festival last month, the director wrote a letter asking audiences not to reveal anything about the story\u2019s twists and turns. The movie\u2019s central character Eloise goes on a journey, Wright wrote, and he would like viewers to go on that journey with her without knowing anything about where it might take them.<\/p>\n

One thing that should be known in advance, however, is that the film deals with some very delicate subject matter \u2013 including abuse inflicted on women. Some early reviews have questioned whether this theme is dealt with appropriately in the film, and whether Wright is the right person to tackle the issue, but in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com<\/a>, co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns takes a different view.<\/p>\n

Asked if anything about the film\u2019s premise made her a little tentative, she responds, \u201cI mean, I think knowing Edgar and being friends with Edgar and knowing\u2026 like the team that he works with is majority female, the two producers, in fact three of his producers are women.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very empathetic, and very understanding person,\u201d she continues. \u201cHe\u2019s not someone who I really had to explain the nuance of the difficulties that sometimes women face to, because he understood it and had watched and often intervened in many kind of ways. And I think he didn\u2019t need me for help with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite not having too many reservations on that front, Wilson-Cairns emphasises that both she and Wright felt \u201ca real responsibility\u201d when telling the story, and says that their research into the time period depicted in the film only made them more determined to get it right.<\/p>\n

\""Last\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Anya-Taylor Joy and Matt Smith in Last Night in Soho (Universal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cUltimately, we had so much research that confirmed our worst fears about what that decade was like and what Soho was like then,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd all these stories that aren\u2019t told, and will never be told, I think it\u2019s really important as a writer to try and create, not take someone\u2019s life and put it on screen, but to take these experiences and amalgamate them in a character that feels true.\u201d<\/p>\n

And she adds that the subject matter was in fact a perfect fit for the horror genre \u2013 which she believes is able to tackle tough themes in a more accessible way than other genres.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important with horror to write something that really frightens you,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd the way women are treated, and toxic masculinity, really frightens me. And I think it really frightens all the women out there as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think these genre films, sometimes people wouldn\u2019t go and see a documentary or a drama about this subject, but this genre can be a Trojan horse, because you know you\u2019re going to be entertained but it might just open your eyes to another experience.\u201d<\/p>

Wright has always been a very cine-literate director \u2013 Wilson-Cairns describes him as \u201cthe biggest film nerd I\u2019ve ever met\u201d \u2013 and so it\u2019s no surprise that the new film is stuffed with references to classic horror flicks. Wright himself has picked out Roman Polanski\u2019s Repulsion and Nicolas Roeg\u2019s Don\u2019t Look Now as two major influences, and Wilson-Cairns says that he gave her lots of viewing homework during the writing process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you start to work with him he just sends you a stack of DVDs about as tall as you are,\u201d she laughs. \u201cI think the stack he sent me was literally five foot tall, in my living room, and he was like, \u2018Can you watch all these by the end of the week\u2019, and I was like, \u2018Of course I can\u2019t \u2013 I\u2019m only one human!’\u201d<\/p>\n

But she says that while those films\u2013 which included several Italian Giallos \u2013 were useful in terms of informing the tone and aesthetics of the movie, they were less helpful when it came to building the characters and story themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor characters and story and world building, there wasn\u2019t kind of a lot out there, especially that really featured women in a shall we say positive light,\u201d she says. \u201cI mean, a lot of the films that were made in the \u201960s were very moralistic, and quite kind of like \u2018shame on you, young woman for having a dream\u2019. And so there wasn\u2019t a lot to necessarily use to build on. But there was so much to give colour.\u201d<\/p>\n