MURDER IN THE PAST. A MYSTERY IN THE FUTURE.

Fashion student Ellie Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) moves to London and begins having strange, realistic dreams that transport her back to the Swinging Sixties.

Edgar Wright pulls you into the charm and glamour surrounding that era only to pull the rug out from under you. The second half of the film turns into a horror-thriller haunted by the spirits and sexual violence of the 1960s. A visual treat, aided by the music of the period and several familiar faces. In her final performance, Diana Rigg is rewarded with a very juicy part, and McKenzie is also perfectly cast as the girl with a passion for the past.

Uneven, but who can resist a ’60s dream that turns into a giallo nightmare?

2021-U.K. 116 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Edgar Wright. Screenplay: Edgar Wright, Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Cinematography: Chung Chung-hoon. Cast: Thomasin McKenzie (Eloise ”Ellie” Turner), Anya Taylor-Joy (Sandie), Matt Smith (Jack), Michael Ajao, Diana Rigg, Terence Stamp, Sam Claflin, Rita Tushingham. 

Trivia: Co-produced by Wright. Stamp’s last film.

Last word: “The ‘60s are known as being the most progressive decade, but that wasn’t necessarily the case for everybody, and I think a lot of people actually took advantage of that. The first thing I did when I pitched the idea was to hire this incredible researcher Lucy Pardee to really dig deep and get some real testimonials and stuff, which I started doing as long as 10 years ago. So by the time I came to writing, I had this massive tome of research that was deeply disturbing, and all of your worst fears confirmed.” (Wright, GQ)