Saltburn is a 2023 black comedy psychological thriller film written, directed, and co-produced by Emerald Fennell, starring Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, and Archie Madekwe. Set in Oxford and Northamptonshire, it focuses on a student at Oxford who becomes fixated with a popular, aristocratic fellow student, who later invites him to spend the summer at his eccentric family's estate.^[4][5][6][7]

Saltburn premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on 31 August 2023. It was released in cinemas in the United Kingdom on 17 November 2023 and in select cinemas in the United States on the same day. The film had its US wide release on 22 November before its streaming release by Amazon Prime Video on 22 December, on which it became one of the most-streamed films.^[8] The film received generally positive reviews, and was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and five BAFTA Film Awards.

In late 2006,^[9] scholarship student Oliver Quick struggles to fit in at the University of Oxford because of his inexperience with upper-class manners. He befriends Felix Catton, an affluent and popular student who is sympathetic to Oliver's stories of his parents' substance abuse and mental health issues. When Oliver becomes distraught over his father's sudden death, Felix comforts him and invites him to spend the summer at his family's country house, Saltburn.

At Saltburn, Oliver meets Felix's eccentric parents Sir James and Lady Elspeth, his sister Venetia and Elspeth's friend Pamela, as well as Felix's American cousin Farleigh, with whom Oliver has had a tense relationship as classmates at Oxford. Oliver quickly wins over Felix's family, except for Farleigh, and his obsession with Felix grows. One night, after watching Felix masturbate in a bathtub, he lustfully drinks the semen-laced bathwater. Later, having seen Venetia waiting outside his bedroom window, he performs oral sex on her while she is on her period. Farleigh witnesses this and informs Felix, but Oliver claims nothing happened when Felix confronts him. At night, Oliver initiates sexual advances on Farleigh, threatening him in the process. The next morning, James evicts Farleigh after receiving a report from Sotheby's about his intention to sell some of James's valuables.

As the summer ends, Elspeth and James plan a party for Oliver's birthday. Felix surprises Oliver with a trip to see his estranged mother, causing Oliver to panic. Upon arriving at the family's house in Prescot, Felix realises Oliver had lied to him about his upbringing. His father is still alive, neither of his parents are substance abuse victims, and they live in a respectable middle-class suburb. Horrified and hurt by Oliver's deception, Felix decides not to tell anyone to spare his own family the humiliation, but orders Oliver to leave Saltburn after the party. During the extravagant celebrations, Oliver seeks to make amends with Felix by expressing his adoration for him but Felix rejects him and suggests he seek help.

The next morning, Felix is found dead in Saltburn's hedge maze. Oliver implies Felix's death was connected to Farleigh supplying drugs during the party, and James withdraws financial support from Farleigh and bans him from returning. Oliver mourns Felix and visits his grave alone, where he lies naked on the grave soil and masturbates on it. After Felix's funeral, Elspeth insists Oliver extend his stay at Saltburn. Venetia, increasingly distraught and disturbed, accuses Oliver of destroying her family. He attempts to seduce her, but she eventually rebuffs him. The next day, Venetia is found dead, having slit her wrists in the bathtub. Despondent over Oliver's continuing presence at Saltburn and Elspeth's closeness to him, James bribes him to leave, which Oliver accepts.

In 2022, Oliver reads about James's death in a newspaper. He subsequently has a chance encounter with Elspeth at a café. She is delighted to see him again, insisting he return with her to Saltburn. After spending several months with Oliver, Elspeth becomes terminally ill. On her deathbed, Oliver confides in Elspeth that he is responsible for all of the tragic and horrifying events at Saltburn. He had orchestrated his initial meeting with Felix at Oxford and had poisoned Felix's drink at the maze, resulting in his death. He even planned his encounter with Elspeth at the café, after which she bequeathed all her assets, including Saltburn, to him. He then removes her life support, killing her. Having now assumed ownership of Saltburn and the Catton family fortune, he happily dances naked around the mansion.

The film is scored by Anthony Willis, who previously scored Fennell's Promising Young Woman. The soundtrack was released by Milan Records on 17 November 2023.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor's 2001 song "Murder on the Dancefloor" was featured in the last scene of the film.^[19][20] As a result, the song received 1.5 million streams on New Year's Eve on Spotify^[21][22] and subsequently re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number eight on 5 January 2024 with 2.2 million streams, marking the song's best-ever streaming week.^[23] The film also features Mason and Princess Superstar's 2006 track "Perfect (Exceeder)" and Tomcraft's 2002 track "Loneliness" which, in addition to "Murder on the Dancefloor", became trending songs, particularly on TikTok.^[24][25]

The film focuses on excess and obsession. Fennell stated "I drew from my own experience of being a human person, who has felt that thing we all feel at that time in our life which is that absolute insane grip of obsessive love...But obviously I didn't quite go to the lengths that some of the people [in the film] do".^[13]

Discussing the film's influences, Fennell has cited A Clockwork Orange (1971),^[26] Cruel Intentions (1999),^[26] Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1938),^[26] and the novel The Go-Between (1953) by L.P. Hartley and its 1971 film adaptation.^[26][27] She commented, "I think that I was sort of looking more at that British Country House tradition of The Go-Between and that sort of very specific British... sort of Joseph Losey world, where class and power and sex all kind of collide in one specific place".^[28] Fennell cited Losey's The Servant (1963) as an influence because of its "undeniable erotic power" that "relies entirely on the threat of violence — not just literal violence, but a complete chaotic upending of the status quo".^[29]

Patricia Highsmith's novel The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) and its film adaptation (1999) have often been cited as an influence by critics due to the common themes of social class and the similarities between Oliver and Tom Ripley,^[30][31][32] though Fennell herself has downplayed these comparisons.^[28] Richard Brody of The New Yorker also found similarities to the novel Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.^[33]

Some critics also pointed out that rich stylisation and visual influences in the film hold some aesthetic influences from Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980).^[34] According to these critics Fennell's Gothic visual style in general mirrors the mythical elements of Coppola's 1992 Dracula film about otherworldly seduction: the Saltburn garden scene especially parallels the carnal possessions of Lucy (Sadie Frost) and Mina (Winona Ryder), who are cosmically drawn to Gary Oldman's Count Dracula; he inevitably sucks their energies away in a slow sapping of desire after luring each into the garden not of Eden but sin.^[35]Saltburn has been billed as a sort of "vampire movie" by filmmaker Fennell herself.^[36]

Other critics have found similarities to Pier Paolo Pasolini's film Theorem (1968) and Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975), which also addressed themes of class, power, desire, and seduction.^[37][38][39] Fennell described her satire of the British class system as "Barry Lyndon meets indie sleaze".^[29]

Saltburn had its world premiere at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on 31 August 2023.^[40][41] It premiered in the United Kingdom (UK) as the opening film of the 67th BFI London Film Festival on 4 October 2023.^[42] It also premiered in Australia at SXSW Sydney on 20 October 2023.^[43]

In the United States, Saltburn was given a limited release on 17 November 2023, followed by a wide release by Amazon MGM Studios on 22 November.^[30] It was originally scheduled to be released on 24 November 2023, but was moved up a week to take advantage of the initial positive response it received at its Telluride premiere.^[44] The film was highly popular on Amazon Prime, becoming one of its top 10 worldwide film debuts, as viewership quadrupled two weeks after its launch. Deadline Hollywood credited the success to the film's viral marketing and word-of-mouth. Saltburn-themed videos amassed nearly 4 billion views on TikTok, with three million influencers and content creators engaging with the film across all platforms and the official Salturn socials obtaining 153 million views.^[8]

Warner Bros. Pictures handled the UK and Ireland release of Saltburn, with a 16 November release in Australia and a 17 November release in the UK.^[45][46] The film became available to stream on Amazon Prime Video on 22 December 2023.^[47][48]