Director: Emerald Fennell
Starring: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe, Carey Mulligan
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 131 mins

Saltburn is the sophomore effort from Emerald Fennell, whose directorial debut was the razor-sharp feminist vigilante thriller Promising Young Woman, where she won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. This follow-up is also an original work that is a fusion of black comedy and a psychological thriller. Barry Keoghan plays Oliver Quick, an Oxford University English Literature scholarship student, who struggles to fit in due to his inexperience with the upper-class. Even his professor is shocked he’s read the entire reading list. The other students sneer and make a mockery of him until he befriends Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) one day, after he lets him borrow his bike to get to a class after he suffers a puncture. Felix is won over by Oliver’s tales of his seemingly hard upbringing, with tales of his parent’s alcoholism and addictions. After Oliver becomes distraught over the sudden death of his father, Felix invites him to spend the summer at his family’s lavish estate, Saltburn. 

Like Promising Young Woman, Saltburn is a darkly satirical piece that isn’t afraid to withhold the shock-factor. It has a raucous quality to it and explores the themes of excess and obsession, with thoroughly unlikeable, vampiric characters, although Fennell’s sharp script gives us plenty to make us invest in them. Oliver feels like a character who is going to be played with and then disposed when he no longer provides enjoyment to his owner and while Fennell satisfies that brief to an extent, she lends her jet-black hand to it. The film’s horror tinge is particularly satisfying and its narrative leaves you guessing where it might head to the very end, although a final twist does feel a little tacked on, especially on a rewatch. 

Although thoroughly entertaining for the most part, Saltburn suffers from its clashing of tones, at times feeling like St Trinians meets an Edgar Wright film with the darker, erotic undertones of The Talented Mr Ripley and Brideshead Revisited. I’d have preferred the film to do without the former, the tacked-on balloon celebratory stylings at odds with the film’s darker elements. The film would have had more bite if it leaned further into its Gothicism and the cheekiness of its erotic thriller elements. 

Most of the performances are more than up to the task of conveying the film’s violent playfulness, with Jacob Elordi and Rosamund Pike highlights as the entitled Oxfordian and his nosy mother. Richard E. Grant also shines as the blue-collared father and Archie Madekwe continues to impress after solid turns in Midsommar and Gran Turismo as Felix’s American cousin, Farleigh, who is an utterly abhorrent shit-stirrer. Paul Rhys is also clearly having fun as the eloquent yet judging Duncan, the head butler who wears a permanent smirk on his face. 

The only performance that doesn’t fully work is Barry Keoghan, who despite terrific performances in films such as The Killing of a Sacred Deer, American Animals and The Banshees of Inisherin, is simply miscast here. While he conveys the slimy, obsessive elements of Oliver brilliantly, his Liverpudlian accent is unconvincing.   

Linus Sandgren’s cinematography is uncharacteristic of the DP, whose work typically revels in opulence in films such as La La Land and Babylon. Here, Sandgren prefers to keep everything dark and dingy and the narrow 1.33:1 aspect ratios offers a claustrophobic feel. It also offers the film a timeless quality – although Saltburn is meant to be set in 2006, its aesthetic perfectly places it in the Victorian or post-War era. Fennell reunites with Promising Young Woman composer Anthony Willis, whose original score hits the spot but the frequent needle-drops felt forced and aggressively contrast the film’s dark storyline and aesthetic. 

Saltburn is ultimately a wholly original follow-up with an interesting tale of excess and obsession that doesn’t fully work with an issue of tone. Despite its flaws, it’s still a thoroughly entertaining film with fun performances and original visuals that is sure to challenge viewers preconceptions of the genres it fuses.

⭐⭐⭐ (Good)