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| “ | A girl did die in that room I suppose... The young me. | „ |
| ~ Ms. Collins revealing herself as Sandie, and her most famous quote. |
| “ | You have to let go of the past. You can't save me! Go save yourself, save the boy. Go! | „ |
| ~ Sandie's last words while telling Ellie to leave before allowing herself to die by staying in her burning home. |
Alexandra "Sandie" Collins is the main antagonist of the 2021 psychological horror film Last Night in Soho.
She was a young singer in the 1960s taken in by the charismatic Jack. However, due to the abuse and mistreatment she faced by him as well as many other men in her life she went on a killing spree in a fit of fury and vengeance against all of her abusers. In the present day, she is a landlady who takes in fashion student named Ellie, the main protagonist, who curiously begins seeing visions depicting Sandie's past with Jack.
As a young woman, she was portrayed by Anya Taylor-Joy, who also played Lily Reynolds in Thoroughbreds and Libby Voze in Amsterdam, while her older self was portrayed by the late Diana Rigg who also played Winifred Gillyflower in Doctor Who, the Evil Queen in the 1987 film adaptation of Snow White, and Mrs. Danvers in the 1997 TV miniseries adaptation of Rebecca, in her final film appearance.
Biography[]
Alexandra Collins was a young woman who went to London to pursue her dreams of becoming a singer, being completely driven and willing to do anything to allow what she wanted to become a reality. On her first night the Café de Paris nightclub where she asked a bartender to see the owner in order to discuss working there as their new headline talent. The bartender was skeptical of her however and informed her that the owner wasn't in that night although did direct her to a talent manager named Jack who was the manager of the club's current singer. Sandie approached Jack and offered him a demonstration of her skills by dancing with him, impressed he offered to discuss business with her over a drink which they had previously ordered already, unfortunately however another sleazy patron at the club began hitting on Sandie until Jack returned to her side and dismissed him, the man was willing although began insulting the two, culminating in him calling Sandie a "slut" prompting Jack to beat him to a pulp before the two ran away laughing over the situation, agreeing to meet the following night.
The following night Jack took her to another club in Soho where she would audition as one of their headline acts, the proprietor was impressed with her singing and as such agreed to hire her. Unfortunately, taking a dark turn as Jack slowly reveals his true nature as he begins pimping Sandie out to several clients from different clubs while also making her take humiliating and degrading gigs, eventually culminating in her having enough and storming off in the middle of a deal. This prompts an angry Jack to follow her and rant; explaining that this is how it is in this business, reminding her that she was willing to do anything to get somewhere in the entertainment world, this allows Sandie to see the true horrors of the club scene, slowly making her become more and more cynical and self loathing while also beginning to heavily drink. In spite of this she was offered a possible way out in the way of a police detective named Lindsay however she refused his help, citing that she doesn't think she that she deserves anything better.
Some time after this, another fight broke out between Sandie and Jack which escalated to the point of him trying to stab her to death, after a struggle she managed to scratch his face hard enough to momentarily stun him before snatching the knife from his grip by the blade and stabbing him 100 times in a fit of fury, killing him. It was here in which she decided to put her revenge plan into motion. Killing every single man who had wronged, abused and mistreated her in incredibly brutal ways, all the while hiding their corpses in the floorboards and walls of her bedroom. She managed to get away with this although did arouse the suspicion of Lindsay, however due to a lack of evidence he didn't have anything on her and thus she remained undetected.
Over the next 50 years Sandie took on a quieter life, becoming more withdrawn due to the trauma she had to endure while working the club scene. She began renting out her old bedroom although didn't have any patrons staying for long due to the room itself being haunted by the spirits of her deceased victims. In 2019 however she eventually had a young fashion student named Eloise Turner move in, of whom she quickly got along with although bestowed upon certain rules such as no male visitors being allowed after 8pm. The two women didn't see a great deal of each other although did get along well due to Eloise's pleasant demeanor however unbeknownst to Sandie Eloise was very sensitive to supernatural phenomena and consequently began having visions in the form of dreams to Sandie and Jack's past, while at first this was nothing more than simple dreams which actually left her in awe due to her love for the 1960s as well as things that inspired her in both her work and social life with her designing dresses in a similar style to the one she first saw Sandie in and also with her dying her hair and buying a similar white vinyl coat to Sandie's in an attempt to look more like her, she quickly began seeing the darker and more horrible aspects of the Soho club scene and was left heavily distressed eventually culminating in her seeing an altered vision of the altercation between Sandie and Jack, although in this vision Sandie was the one who was killed. This event deeply traumatized Eloise and she tried pressing for more answers to what was going on but to no avail, eventually resorting to even going to the police after being greatly overwhelmed by the site of ghosts constantly haunting her in each and every point of her everyday life. While the male detective was unsympathetic and simply thought Eloise was insane, even laughing about her situation and story with his friends, the female detective was much more willing to listen and look into her claims, although did say that realistically it would be difficult to find anything significant about a supposed killing from so long ago prompting Eloise to do her own research.
The detective true to her word did look into the situation and visited Ms. Collins to explain what was going on and question her about Sandie, Collins lied saying she had no idea what any of it was about however it was here that she actually realised what was going on with Eloise. That night Eloise returned to the house and told Ms. Collins she had to leave and Collins was sympathetic to her plight, asking her to come in for a cup of tea which she had laced with sleeping pills unbeknownst to Ellie. During the conversation she revealed herself to actually be Sandie and explained everything she had done to Ellie who although horrified was still sympathetic to Collins given the circumstances, even promising not to expose her. Here Sandie revealed that she had slipped Ellie sleeping pills and that she would die, she comforted her however telling her that she did actually like her and didn't want to suffer from a horrific stabbing like the men who abused her did, offering her a much more painless and peaceful death. She remained this way with Ellie until she heard Ellie's love interest John (who was taking her out of London) knocking on the door, worried about her for how long she had been in the house when she only went to collect her things, Ellie drowsily attempted to intervene when she saw Sandie grab a pair of scissors however the latter punched her in the face, flooring her before opening the door and stabbing John in spite of Ellie's attempt to warn him of what was happening.
Sandie attempted to kill Ellie by chasing her up the stairs, not realizing that a fire had now been started due to her records being set ablaze by a cigarette not fully put out once Ellie stumbled into the table on her way out the flat, knocking the ash tray into the record box. As she chased Ellie up the stairs the latter became confronted with visions of Sandie's younger self slowly pursuing her while singing and slashing at her wildly, this lasted until Ellie gained enough distance to kick Sandie in the leg sending her falling onto the ground, Sandie was also now made aware of the fire due to a heavily injured John screaming "FIRE!" in an attempt to warn them. In spite of the danger Sandie chased Ellie into her room where the latter attempted to call the police only to be stopped by all of the ghosts, begging Ellie to help them and kill Sandie so they could rest in peace. However given why they were killed to begin with Ellie refused and in this instant Sandie managed to break the door down, being confronted with all of her past victims cowering in fear over her with the exception of Jack who was revealed to be the leader of the ghosts. Jack stormed over to Sandie and slapped her across the face before he and the rest of the spirits disappeared completely.
Sandie looked into the mirror and saw her younger self staring back at her and sadly lamented to Eloise over how she never wanted this before attempting to slit her own throat, although Ellie stopped her from doing so Sandie demanded that she leave her to die and save John, citing that she couldn't be saved and was unwilling to go to prison. Heavily upset from the events Eloise hugged Sandie, remaining sympathetic to her plight before giving into her wishes and leaving. Sandie then moved to the bed and sat still, awaiting the flames to engulf her. Meanwhile Eloise and John were rescued by the fire brigade and given immediate medical attention.
Sometime later during her graduation fashion show Eloise showed off a series of dresses all based upon the chiffon tent dress she first saw Sandie in, blowing away the audience as well as her lecturer and classmates who congratulated her for her work. Ellie then saw her mother's spirit reflected in a mirror smiling warmly and proudly at her daughter's work, shortly thereafter Ellie was met by John and her grandmother who both returned the same congratulatory sentiments with the latter citing once again that her mother would be proud to which Ellie responded that "she is" before turning back to the mirror, instead of her mother's spirit however she was met with Sandie's taking on the form of her younger self once again she winked and waved to Eloise before smiling at her, the two then met each other's gaze in the mirror and allowed their pinkies to touch, implying that Sandie might have finally found her true peace in the afterlife.
Personality[]
Sandie was an ambitious and confident young woman who aspired to be a singer and found herself swung into the hustle and bustle of the roaring sixties, finding herself falling in love with Jack and being taken in by his charm.
Unfortunately however thanks to Jack's cruel and abusive behavior as well as the other unpleasant experiences she had with men Sandie ultimately became a vengeful and angry woman, this culminated after she was forced to kill Jack in self-defense when he tried to murder her, this ultimately led her into becoming a bitter and vengeful woman who wanted to take revenge on all of those who had wronged her, using her charisma and attractiveness to lure in all of the men who mistreated her to their deaths.
With age Sandie adopted her original name, Alexandra, once again and was much more relaxed, calm, friendly and hospitable, being a warm-hearted and polite landlady who was very welcoming of Ellie, however her desire to hide her crimes remained intact and she wasn't above trying to kill Ellie as well as John when they proved to be a possible liability in revealing what she did in the 60s. In the end however she showed remorse for her actions and genuinely did like Ellie, telling her and John to save themselves and let her die.
Sandie also became quite grouchy in her later years and she understandably had a heavy dislike and mistrust towards men.
Appearance[]
Sandie was a beautiful, fair-skinned, slim, and tall young woman with shoulder length blonde hair with bangs usually styled in a loose beehive and brown eyes. She had a very flashy and formal fashion sense which Ellie would begin emulating on herself in many ways, most notably with her white double breasted vinyl trench coat. Perhaps her most notable clothing items would be her dresses which vary wildly in styles and colors, some of these include; a peach chiffon tent dress with a metallic halter neck, a black lace dress and a scarlet A-line dress (as pictured in the infobox)
In her later years Alexandra's looks didn't fade significantly although she had visibly aged and her hair had gone grey and was usually styled in a bun. Her fashion sense also took on a much more subdued and relaxed tone and she appeared to contract myopia as she needed to wear glasses. She also had a faded scar on the palm of her hand thanks to when she grabbed Jack's knife from the blade to kill him.
Alexandra's ghost form took on the image of her younger self in the peach chiffon tent dress.
Trivia[]
- Due to Diana Rigg's passing in 2020, Edgar Wright dedicated the film to both her and Margaret Nolan, who played the Irish pub proprietor. Her name was shown at the beginning instead of the end.
- Originally Edgar Wright was going to approach Anya Taylor Joy to play Ellie however due to realizing how often she was cast as a final girl and thinking it would be an interesting change for her to play a villain he approached her for the role of Sandie instead while Ellie winded up being played by Thomasin McKenzie.
- When Sandie arrived at the theaters, the James Bond movie Thunderball was shown, meaning that since the year was probably starting in the year 1965, her singing career was only lasted for at least four years before being her quiet life around the end of 60s in the year 1969 when started her murdering spree and meaning she was probably 79 years old. In real life Diana Rigg was also close friends with the late first James Bond actor Sean Connery, who also coincidentally died in the same year over a month after she passed.
External Links[]
- Sandie on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki.