Wuthering Heights fans are up in arms at 2025’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s revered 1847 gothic novel, which has taken a somewhat erotic turn.
Featuring original songs by Charli XCX, Saltburn’s Oscar-winning director Emerald Fennell’s first trailer just dropped, causing an almighty emotional crater for 19th century romance purists.
It’s, erm, raunchy alright. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi didn’t hold back in their lustful depictions of willful Cathy and tortured Heathcliff, as the teaser trailer showed much heavy breathing, sweaty skin, and fingers in mouths – including a peculiar moment in which a forefinger was seemingly erotically (we think?) placed in a dead fish’s open gob.
It’s going to be an experience, that’s for sure – and knowing Saltburn, not innocent early dating Valentine’s Day fodder.
The trailer opens with a moody view of those wily, windy moors (at least they have remained) before some serious ASMR-injected sexualised 19th century bread kneading.
‘I can follow you like a dog to the end of the world,’ Heathcliff tells Cathy in a blustery, intense moor scene, before she ogles at his back sweat while he pootles about doing jobs.
More food erotica follows, with – now almost certainly grubby – fingers in eggs and then mouths.
Naturally, the sexual tension is amplified by a fractured version of Charli XCX’s Everything is romantic for the soundtrack, from her cultural supernova Brat album.
Initial reviews of the artistic direction of Wuthering Heights have caused an almighty uproar, with many fans wishing the whims of 2025 hadn’t touched this sacred gothic text with a barge pole.
‘The way this didn’t need to be a Wuthering Heights adaptation, like girl if you wanted to make a horny period piece then do that. No need to terrorise Emily Bronte,’ wrote @sshxniaa on X.
‘Emily Bronte is rising from her grave as we speak because why did they turn Wuthering Heights into Fifty Shades of Heathcliff and Cathy,’ said @daehaerys.
@witcheyre said: ‘Wuthering Heights has been transformed into a modern-day 50 Shades of Grey (with body horror involved). This gives me physical pain!’
‘I wish I did not live to see the day Wuthering Heights, a beautiful gothic novel about the cycle of generational trauma with themes of race, class, religion, mental illness, abuse, etc., was adapted into a white washed dark romance booktok bodice ripper with a hyperpop soundtrack,’ added @lynchianbush.
People will likely be flocking to the cinemas to see it, despite initial reservations, as @ellieleaks admitted: ‘Liking every Wuthering Heights hate tweet even though i’ll probably be seated why lie.’
The film also stars alongside Oscar nominee Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, BAFTA winner Martin Clunes and Ewan Mitchell.
In August it was reported that – in true Saltburn fashion – an initial first screening of the unfinished film left many shocked.
(Saltburn is famed for its provocative content, which includes extreme sexual content, disturbing scenes of nudity and liberal smatterings of violence and gore).
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 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.
While dirty dough kneading, eggs, and equestrian BDSM from the test screening remain intact in the trailer, only time will tell what else will change in the next five months.
Are we worried and disturbed? Yes. But are we seated? Also yes.
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