Emerald Fennell’s controversial adaptation of Wuthering Heights has been met with shock and labelled ‘aggressively provocative’ by initial audiences.
Fennell’s 2023 dark comedy Saltburn, starring Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi, caused quite the stir when it was released a couple of years ago.
The film featured darkly erotic scenes and was praised for its severe sexual content and nudity, as well as its frequent depiction of violence and gore.
Because of this huge success, the announcement that Fennell would be directing an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights was met with excitement – and concern from literary fans.
The casting of Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie respectively as Heathcliff and Cathy, raised major eyebrows, and now it’s been reported that an initial first screening of the unfinished film has left many shocked by the content of the period piece.
World of Reel revealed that the adaptation included -among other shocking scenes – a nun fondling a corpse, BDSM, and sexualised slugs and egg yolks.
Attendees have reported that the film includes ‘hyper-sexualised imagery’ with a ‘grotesque’ scene that sees a public hanging end with the condemned man ejaculating during the execution.
This is followed up with some blasphemous necrophia from a nun who ‘fondles the corpse’s visible erection’.
There are ‘several masturbation scenes’ that are ‘purposefully discomforting’ and a ‘BDSM-tinged encounter’ involving a woman being strapped into some horse reins.
There are also some rather sexy textures, including ‘egg yolks running through fingers’, sliding slugs, and a bit of dirty dough kneading.
Test screenings can often lead to major edits to the film, and with Fennell’s film not set to be released until February 2026, who knows if any of this will make it to the final cut!
The film has faced criticism for casting Elordi, yet another white actor to play Heathcliff, a famously non-white role that was written by Brontë.
On one page of the original novel, Heathcliff is described as a ‘dark-skinned gipsy in aspect’, while another refers to his ‘dusky fingers’. Characters debate his appearance to be of a ‘Lascar’ – a dated description meaning a sailor from India or Southeast Asia – or ‘an American or Spanish castaway’.
Casting director Kharmel Cochrane worked on the film and is one of the biggest names in her field in the UK, having previously worked on the likes of Nosferatu, Saltburn, Bob Marley: One Love.
While at the Sands International Film Festival of St Andrews, she told Metro that she is very much aware of the abuse directed at her after her casting choices for the film.
‘I have really had to hold back on Instagram after a glass of wine, because I think someone was like, “The casting director should be shot”,’ she said.
‘There’s definitely going to be some English Lit fans that are not going to be happy.’
She then added: ‘Wait until you see the set design, because it’s even more shocking. And there may or may not be a dog collar in it.’
‘You can read anything into a book and make it your interpretation. And it’s really easy to sit online and say things, but just wait until you’ve watched it, and then you can say – maybe not that I deserve to be shot – but you can say what you want!’ Cochrane suggests.
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