If you’re a fan of 19th-century novels (or if you were forced to take a lit class as one of your undergrad gen-ed requirements), then you’re probably familiar with Emily Brontë’s 1847 classic Wuthering Heights.
The windswept saga of brooding orphan Heathcliff and his adoptive-sister-turned-love-interest Catherine Earnshaw has simultaneously thrilled and grossed out generations of readers.
So there was considerable interest when it was announced that Oscar-nominated director Emerald Fennell would be adapting the story with Margot Robbie as one of two Cathies and Jacob Elordi as her madman of the moors.
Unfortunately, much of that enthusiasm blew away like a mist on the wolds when social media users got their first look at the film on Wednesday.
To be fair, a lot of folks were skeptical of this project to begin with, both because of Fennell’s resume (the denizens of Film Twitter remain divided on the topic of her talent behind the camera) and the casting:
Obviously, Robbie is a great actress, but she’s also about twice the age of Catherine, who (178-year-old spoiler alert!) dies at the age of 18 fairly early in the novel.
So plenty of amateur critics were primed to hate this movie before they saw a single frame of it.
And the haters had a field day when the first promotional materials for the film hit social media on Wednesday.
First, there was the poster, which is bizarrely reminiscent of the artwork for Gone With the Wind, another story that’s commonly mischaracterized as a great romance.
Then there was the suggestive trailer, which led some viewers to refer to Fennell’s adaptation as “50 Shades of Brontë.”
At least one esteemed pop culture site declared that the film “looks terrible” and numerous social media users likened the trailer to those awkward videos in which chefs try to sexualize their sourdough.
“I’m sure this is going to be some subversive take on Wuthering Heights that no one asked for,” wrote one user on X (formerly Twitter) after branding Fennell a “millennial edgelord.”
“You see what happens when you let people who were born to direct music videos make movies,” another chimed in.
Many have pointed out that if Fennel wanted to make a horny 19th-century period piece, she certainly has the clout to get it financed without piggy-backing off of existing IP.
One common fear seems to be that a whole generation will now think of Wuthering Heights as the stuff of Booktok “dark romance,” complete with corsets, whips, and … a finger inserted in a dead fish’s mouth?
And then there are the purists who take issue with the soundtrack, courtesy of Charli XCX. Obviously, those scolds aren’t aware of the many occasions when such anachronisms led to the kind of cinematic classics that your hungover English teacher would let you watch in class (1996’s Romeo + Juliet, anyone?).
Of course, Heights won’t hit theaters until Valentine’s Day of 2026, so all of this week’s judgments are quite premature.
Perhaps we should all follow the advice of the X user who wrote, “You all need to unclench. This looks hot.
Or the one who cautioned, “The Emerald Fennell Backlash Backlash is going to take some of you by surprise.”
In any case, the film is sure to spark some interesting conversations — and probably a major spike in corset sales.