Emerald Fennell
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Drawing from films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley and Teorema, Saltburn wears its inspirations on its sleeve while taking it up a notch.
Comparisons will certainly be made to Brideshead Revisited, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and even the works of Donna Tartt.
While watching this film, it was hard for me not to think of The Talented Mr. Ripley. Anyone who has seen that film or read Patricia Highsmith's novel is familiar will likely have a similar experience while watching Saltburn, as the two share quite a few similarities. Both are about obsession, class disparities, and are psychological thrillers that take unexpected turns.
Saltburn is her mash-up of The Secret History and The Talented Mr. Ripley…
Cruel Intentions, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Anna Karenina follow similar threads.
“Saltburn” is indeed a wild ride that’s cut from the same incestual cloth as “Cruel Intentions” and the swagger of “The Talented Mr. Ripley.”
As a result, Saltburn feels like Game of Thrones meets Brideshead Revisited as the chess game that starts at Oxford and continues at Saltburn reaches its delightfully dark and wicked climax.
The idea of giving Brideshead Revisited a modern-day spin and then plunking an increasingly Tom Ripley-like character into the middle of it all is not without its appeal, I suppose.
If Cruel Intentions and Brideshead Revisited were burned to ashes then laced with acid and smoked, you’d get the sensation of Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman follow-up, Saltburn.
Saltburn can be shorthanded as Brideshead Revisited by way of The Talented Mr. Ripley, though it’s the former that’s the primary reference point.
A dash of Brideshead Revisited, a skosh of The Talented Mr. Ripley, pinches of Wuthering Heights, and a dollop of Catherine Breillat and Cruel Intentions ensues.
But those who are expecting a crossover between The Talented Mr. Ripley and Brideshead Revisited will be disappointed, as there is no satisfaction to be gained from watching evil geniuses do their magic, just like there are no hidden motivations to uncover that would justify their actions and make us understand them.
Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson
influenced "Wuthering Heights" (2026)
Themes
Did Wuthering Heights aim to be Fifty Shades of Brontë?
Compared to this, “Fifty Shades of Grey” looks like a chaste after school special.
Around that same time, another piece of Twilight-influenced media, Fifty Shades of Grey, dropped, and female-gaze smut made a resurgence in the mainstream.
It's shallow fan fiction that has more in common with E.L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey than Brontë's unflinching portrait of obsessive love, vengeance, the violence of class, racism and generational trauma.
There are certain aspects of Wuthering Heights, that seem very reminiscent of Fifty Shades of Grey in the way that desire, power, and kink intersect.
Fennell seems to be prodding us with the imagery of erotic submission that was once the purview of Harlequin romances but has now gone mainstream in the wake of Fifty Shades of Grey and the dawn of BookTok.
If Cruel Intentions and Brideshead Revisited were burned to ashes then laced with acid and smoked, you’d get the sensation of Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman follow-up, Saltburn.
Cruel Intentions, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Anna Karenina follow similar threads.
Honestly, I wouldn’t have made the leap to Cruel Intentions if I hadn’t heard Fennell cite the movie as a direct inspiration. The sex and desire in Saltburn definitely hit with the same immediate “Oh no they didn’t” impact that one got from Cruel Intentions.
“Saltburn” is indeed a wild ride that’s cut from the same incestual cloth as “Cruel Intentions” and the swagger of “The Talented Mr. Ripley.”
With its slick mix of Parasite stylings, elements of the Talented Mr Ripley and shades of Cruel Intentions, Emerald Fennell's blistering follow up to Promising Young Woman is one of the more electric releases in cinemas in 2023.
What she’s created is something like the bastard child of Cruel Intentions and The Talented Mr. Ripley…
Not to mention a giant hedge maze for a little seasoning via The Shining…
Felix’s lavish estate that, in another era, could’ve doubled as the Overlook in “The Shining.”
…it is not clear whether the Shining-like maze, in which angel wings and horns start to appear, is attached to it…
…but then there are late-night doings by the pond and a “Shining”-like maze…
“Saltburn” seems inspired by “Brideshead Revisited” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” with a touch of “Absolutely Fabulous.
Fennell is also keen to make sure Evelyn Waugh gets a name drop, just to make sure you get audience members will go home and be led to Googling Brideshead Revisited to see the similarity.
Whose character seems to stand in for Anthony Blanche in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited .
But those who are expecting a crossover between The Talented Mr. Ripley and Brideshead Revisited will be disappointed, as there is no satisfaction to be gained from watching evil geniuses do their magic, just like there are no hidden motivations to uncover that would justify their actions and make us understand them.
Comparisons will certainly be made to Brideshead Revisited , The Talented Mr. Ripley , and even the works of Donna Tartt.
As a result, Saltburn feels like Game of Thrones meets Brideshead Revisited as the chess game that starts at Oxford and continues at Saltburn reaches its delightfully dark and wicked climax.
Ms .45 (1981)
Directed by Abel Ferrara
influenced Promising Young Woman (2020), Saltburn (2023)
Themes Plot
…a cloddish-but-glossy retread of such female-driven revenge sagas as Ms .45 and I Spit on Your Grave…
If you watch the trailer for Promising Young Woman , the feature directorial debut of The Crown actress and Killing Eve showrunner Emerald Fennell, you’ll probably think you’re about to see a glossy proto-feminist tale of revenge, something akin to a 21st-century Ms .45 or a post-Weinstein Veronica Mars .
I’m thinking, specifically, of Abel Ferrara’s righteously furious Ms .45…
Any vicarious thrill from seeing these films’ antagonists hunted down by avenging angels (typically, but not always, the victims of rape) in work as varied in style and quality as The Last House on the Left (1972), Ms .45…
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Directed by Charles Laughton
influenced Promising Young Woman (2020)
Characters
Fennell’s inspirations are more macabre, utilizing a snippet of The Night of the Hunter (1955) as a prelude to Cassandra’s eventual climax.
Back at work the next day, Cassie – who lives with her clueless parents (Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown, whose home décor is stuck in the ‘70s as they ironically watch The Night of the Hunter on TV) – serves a customer Ryan (Bo Burnham).
They definitely have no idea what Cassie gets up to in the evenings, their obliviousness underscored by a glibly amusing shot of them watching “The Night of the Hunter.”
In Charles Laughton’s, The Night of the Hunter, the film’s misogynistic serial killer protagonist, Rev. Harry Powell, says, “Not that you mind the killings.
If you’re expecting the film to look like Downton Abbey, expect disappointment. Downton Abbey, it is not.
It’s the kind of English country home that makes Downton Abbey look like a shack.
Her story begins in 2006, so one can assume we are no longer in the days of Downton Abbey.
Brideshead Revisited or Downton Abbey it’s not as writer/director Emerald Fennell exquisitely bulldozes through any expectations of proper behaviour in polite society.
Parasite (2019)
Directed by Bong Joon Ho
influenced Saltburn (2023), Promising Young Woman (2020)
Themes Plot Visuals
Having expected a typical eat-the-rich satire, i.e. Parasite (2019), this truly put me off.
With its slick mix of Parasite stylings, elements of the Talented Mr Ripley and shades of Cruel Intentions, Emerald Fennell's blistering follow up to Promising Young Woman is one of the more electric releases in cinemas in 2023.
One that is laced with pitch-black humour and psychosexual undertones best described as multi-genre crosses between The Talented Mr Ripley, Call Me by Your Name, Parasite and even Killers of the Flower Moon.
I would describe it as a British Parasite with the filmmaking style of Kubrick's Barry Lyndon.
Echoing Bong Joon-ho’s masterful and ever-evolving Parasite , Fennell giddily drives Promising Young Woman through different genres to consistently keep an audience on its toes and completely mess with your expectations.
Drawing from films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley and Teorema, Saltburn wears its inspirations on its sleeve while taking it up a notch.
With more than a nod towards Pasolini’s Theorem, a tinge of eroticism and unachievable desire underscore a subversive Saltburn.
…it’s basically Teorema by way of The Talented Mr. Ripley…
Her take on Wuthering Heights feels akin to Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996) or The Great Gatsby (2013), in the sense that it's a literary adaptation that’s more concerned with theatricality and spectacle than translating a work of classic literature to the big screen as authentically as possible.
…like Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet.
Fennell programmed a series at the BFI IMAX of titles that inspired her version of Wuthering Heights, including Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter, David Cronenberg’s Crash, Park Chan-Wook’s The Handmaiden, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, Mervyn LeRoy’s Random Harvest and Catherine Breillat’s Bluebeard.
It's no more salacious than an average episode of Bridgerton.
…more akin to a Bridgerton fumble under the petticoats…
Bells and whistles are not necessary, but you get them anyway, for a Bridgerton-style effect.
…it’s Wuthering Heights for the Bridgerton generation…
From The Menu (2022) and Triangle of Sadness (2022), to Parasite, The White Lotus (2021-) and the Knives Out series, these types of stories increasingly show how much this anti-high-society sentiment resonates with so many viewers.
Especially since we’ve had so many watered-down eat-the-rich stories lately (see last year’s lineup: The Menu, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story, and Triangle of Sadness)…
Unlike say, last year’s film The Menu, or Ready or Not a few years prior, this isn’t an eat the rich type of film.
With lashings of delightfully dark comedy, Fennel’s film, like Triangle of Sadness, isn’t just interested in dissecting wealth and privilege, but also in the power and political gameplay that leads to the throne.
From The Menu (2022) and Triangle of Sadness (2022), to Parasite, The White Lotus (2021-) and the Knives Out series, these types of stories increasingly show how much this anti-high-society sentiment resonates with so many viewers.
Especially since we’ve had so many watered-down eat-the-rich stories lately (see last year’s lineup: The Menu, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story, and Triangle of Sadness)…
Twinless (2025)
Directed by James Sweeney
influenced by Saltburn (2023)
and Emerald Fennell by name
Themes
On Fennell, rather than any one film
Sweeney is more suited to a Mike White/Tim Robinson/Emerald Fennell kind of comedy…
On the films
Twinless is a toned down twist on Saltburn meets Netflix’s Dead To Me.
In Saltburn, Barry Keoghan played a deceptively creepy role.
Saltburn is a seductive odyssey of lust, desire and betrayal that plays out like a Shakespearean episode of ‘Skins’, with a slight dash of ‘Succession’.
Inspired by and somewhat a homage toBrideshead Revisited,The Talented Mr Ripleyand with a smattering ofKind Hearts and Coronets…
…such an unlikely one as Robert Hamer’s “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” albeit in a far sourer mode…
…and Robert Egger’s Nosferatu…
During the promotional tour for "Nosferatu" in 2024, director Robert Eggers told The Verge that he viewed the story of "Nosferatu" as a "demon lover story," and frequently returned to one of the great demon lover stories while writing his script — Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights."
Many films have sought to explore and uncover the wealth divide at the heart of British life, from If…. (1968) to The Riot Club (2014), with each dissecting the inherited power and privilege at the heart of the British state.