Growing up as an avid reader, it was always a toss-up on whether the newest film or TV adaptation of my favorite books would play out how I imagined they would as I read the book. Many creators took far too many liberties with their source material — cough, cough, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”.
In the case of a book as beloved as “Wuthering Heights,” onscreen adaptations are par for the course —however, its adaptations have not always been well-received. Fans have heavily critiqued previous movies and shows — either for being too rushed, not long enough, poorly cast or too modernized.
Are directors consistently missing the mark, or are audiences just too picky when it comes to character depictions and set design? I think the answer lies with why there are so many bad movie adaptations in general: directors are choosing to make movies with broad appeal rather than catering to a smaller number of expectant fans.
Best known for her controversial 2023 film “Saltburn” — starring “Euphoria” actor Jacob Elordi — Director Emerald Fennell has taken it upon herself to create the next “Wuthering Heights,” set to release just in time for Valentine’s Day in 2026.
Even two years after the release of “Saltburn,” many are still haunted by the film, earning Fennell a reputation for films that leaves her audience feeling icky. “Saltburn” scarred me, and I’m never going to watch it again or recommend it to another person, but you have to admit — it was still an original story with its own themes and morals.
Remembering Fennell’s track record, I wasn’t planning on watching the trailer for “Wuthering Heights”, but in the end, I gave in to my curiosity.
Mistake.
The first twenty seconds of the trailer, complete with original music by Charli XCX, immediately told me that this movie will be deeply controversial. I felt like I was watching a ninety-second Book-Tok-Goodreads-five-star-smut-reads compilation. Once again, I was left feeling uncomfortable, almost like I was watching something I shouldn’t be.
While the colors, cinematography, set design and costumes all look phenomenal, they can’t make up for the main problem.
Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” seems to lean into not only the shock factor that defines her other films, but also the highly-sexualized storytelling that modern media consumers have come to expect from romance stories.
Let me break down the trailer for those who haven’t seen it. Opening with foggy, rolling hills, the story quickly veers from dark and Gothic to dark and sensual. Margot Robbie stands center of the camera, shots switching between her standing breathless and in a trance, a pair of hands suggestively kneading dough, a man’s scarred back, and glimpses between Robbie and a bearded Elordi. After being snapped from her daze, the scenes allow viewers to see snippets of a multitude of intimate scenes between the main couple engaging in what seems to be a scandalous affair.
Provocative content in books and movies isn’t a new thing. However, the rise of BookTok has made this type of content more prominent in everyday media, with avid readers of the smut genre searching for it in everything they read, even the classics. The expectations to find such content in books written during a completely different time and social standards lead to unfaithful movie adaptations and purist fans who are left disappointed.
“Saltburn” was weird, sure. But it was an original story created by Fennell, giving her creative liberty to tell her story, no matter how skin-crawling or R-rated. “Wuthering Heights”, on the other hand, has been published and in circulation for nearly 200 years, with countless adaptations already made and a rock-solid place in the Victorian Novel Hall of Fame. The essential elements of the story have to be respected. Right?
Even though many fans of the novel are still hoping for a semi-accurate representation of the original story of Heathcliff and Cathy, I don’t think that Fennell is going to deliver. Regardless of how you might feel about her track record, she is undoubtedly a talented director — but remaking this beloved classic could be a setback in her career.
There isn’t much I can say about the movie itself, since it’s still unreleased, but I already feel that creepy crawling down my spine at the thought of what it could be. Choosing not to center stories around popular tropes of social media — in this case, the hypersexualized plots of modern romance books — is what creates the timeless adaptations of classics that people crave.