We are one month away from Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, which looks like a f-cked up fairytale with a dash of classism and…human sacrifice? I said after the first trailer that the creepy butler looks like the type to poison people, but now this new trailer, Saltburn looks like Emerald Fennell sat down and said, “What if Brideshead Revisited but with human sacrifice?” The whole family looks like the type to poison people! Or push them down a flight of stairs! Or murder them elaborately in the woods as part of an arcane ritual!
This trailer gets more into the setup—Barry Keoghan plays Oliver, who does something inexplicably nice for Felix, the heartthrob played by Jacob Elordi. It’s so nice, in fact, that I am now completely suspicious of Oliver, and it’s not just because he’s played by Barry Keoghan, who excels at playing twisted characters. Maybe it’s not that Felix and his family sacrifice Oliver, maybe Oliver murders Felix and his family!
The favor greases the wheels with Felix and his social circle, enough to get Oliver to Felix’s ancestral pile, Saltburn, and there it seems things…happen. There is definitely blood on the floor in one shot, and someone’s funeral in another, and everyone seems to be playing twisted games with each other. There’s a lot of homoeroticism and Saltburn is billed as a thriller, as was Promising Young Woman. That movie has one of the most gutting third act turns in recent memory, and Saltburn seems to have a similar twist tucked somewhere in it.
The trailer is definitely hinting at revelations, and one of the pull quotes used in the trailer flat-out says “steeped in twists and turns”. So, obviously, there is more to Saltburn than meets the eye. I’m here for it. Promising Young Woman is an astounding debut feature, I cannot WAIT to see Emerald Fennell turn her lens—and her pen—on her own English gentry milieu, especially if it comes with a side of murder mystery.
