Emerald Fennell’s new “Wuthering Heights” trailer provokes mixed feelings amongst Brontë fans

Alisha Reeve

"Wuthering Heights"' poster (source: Warner Bros)

Last week, the world finally got to see the well-anticipated trailer for Emerald Fennell’s upcoming film, “Wuthering Heights.” Whilst some people have embraced Fennell’s bold new take on the story with as much fervour as Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi display onscreen, others are not too keen on Fennell’s interpretation of Emily Brontë’s novel.

‘I think my initial thoughts, me being rather set in my ways and thinking I know what I want from a film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, I was adamant that I would not go to see it,’ says third-year German and Spanish student, Lucie Innes, who studied English during her sub-honours. At the University of St Andrews, the School of English requires their first-year students to read Wuthering Heights as a part of their ‘Culture and Conflict’ module. ‘But now that I’ve allowed myself to have a bit more of an open mind, I think I would go and see it, if only out of curiosity, to see what they’ve done with the novel and how they’ve gone about adapting it.’

Curiosity is good way to put it. The trailer features an all manner of incidents that have those who have read the book scratching their heads with confusion. Suggestive shots of egg yolks and kneading dough; the crack of a horse's whip that appears to evoke the 18th century equivalent of Fifty Shades of Grey; fingers slithering inside mouths; a woman crawling across a floor. All of this, dressed up in historically inaccurate costumes and soundtracked by Charli xcx’s ‘Everything is romantic.’ Faithfulness to the source material does not appear to be Fennell’s main goal here.

However, the official title of this film is “Wuthering Heights,” as in, it’s written in quotation marks. Perhaps this was done intentionally on Fennell’s part. ‘I think the stylisation of the title and the use of quotation marks is really interesting,’ Innes continues. ‘Because then it gives them more licence and ability to be free with their adaptation. It isn’t claiming to be Wuthering Heights. It seems as though it could be a more sort of inventive take.’

Inventive take indeed. Fennell doesn’t shy away from making things inventive, given the controversy sparked by her previous project, Saltburn (2023), which featured the infamous bathtub and graveyard scenes. Her latest project seems to be heading in a similar direction, which includes casting Jacob Elordi as one of the main roles. This is just one of the many subjects of discourse that “Wuthering Heights” is already generating. ‘I just think the casting of a white man in a role of somebody who is specifically ethnic, who is definitely of colour. I think erasing that could be quite problematic,’ Innes says.

For those who have not read the book, Heathcliff, who is one of the leading protagonists alongside Catherine Earnshaw, is described by Brontë as a ‘dark skinned gipsy.’ ‘A lot of the messages and the themes of this book revolve around giving a voice to those who don’t have a voice, who are generally looked down upon by society. People of colour, women, power of lower status and class,’ Innes explains. ‘You lose an element of that social commentary and social critique that Brontë is writing about by not having Heathcliff be a person of colour.’

Users of social media have also been expressing their disdain for Fennell’s creative decisions. One user has named this adaptation ‘the matcha Dubai chocolate labubu of film.’ I ask Innes what she thinks of this: ‘I do think it’s kind of accurate. It seems like just a stringing together of different pop culture elements that are popular at the moment. And, you know, Jacob Elordi and Emerald Fennell are quite popular at the moment, you know, after Saltburn. And Margot Robbie with Barbie. But I think there is a question of whether these people have been cast simply because they are famous, specifically among a certain crowd of people, sort of the younger trendy people. Yeah, I think it does cater towards a certain demographic.’

Considering Fennell’s previous film projects, it is unsurprising to me that the trailer has generated mixed reviews. The same thing happened with Saltburn. But Saltburn went on to be nominated for both Academy and BAFTA awards, so who’s to say that “Wuthering Heights” won’t do the same? I do think there is more to this film that Fennell is letting on. The only way to find out will be to go to the cinema on Valentines Day and watch it, even if it will ‘drive me mad.’