Wuthering Heights: Emerald Fennell’s new film revisits Emily Brontë’s dark tale of obsessive love

A windswept moor. A doomed romance. A love so intense it borders on feral. Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights has long been the literary benchmark for passion turned poisonous, but Emerald Fennell’s new film promises to drag the classic tale into a darker, stranger and more provocatively modern realm.

Here’s everything to know. 

What is the plot of Wuthering Heights?

If your memory of Brontë’s masterpiece is a little foggy (or if you’ve permanently avoided reading it after GCSE English), here’s a refresher. 

Set against the rugged Yorkshire landscape, Wuthering Heights follows Heathcliff, a mysterious child plucked from obscurity by the wealthy Mr Earnshaw and raised alongside his children, Hindley and Catherine. Tensions set in almost immediately: Hindley bristles with jealousy while Catherine forms an intense, unbreakable bond with Heathcliff.

After Mr Earnshaw’s death, the household descends into hostility. Hindley returns with a vengeance and demotes Heathcliff to a servant. Catherine, torn between social aspiration and her feral connection to Heathcliff, ultimately chooses to marry their refined neighbour, Edgar Linton. Rejected, Heathcliff disappears only to return years later, transformed and newly wealthy, determined to exact revenge on the families who destroyed him.

It is, as the film’s trailer states, “The Greatest Love Story” but one steeped in obsession, cruelty and catastrophe.

Who stars in Wuthering Heights?  

Once again, Emerald Fennell has assembled a star-studded cast, but one that has come with a dash of controversy.

Margot Robbie both produces and stars as the tempestuous Catherine ‘Cathy’ Earnshaw, while Jacob Elordi takes on the role of Heathcliff – a casting choice that has already sparked vigorous debate among the novel’s fans.

The supporting cast is also impressive, with The Whale and Kinds Of Kindness star Hong Chau playing the long-suffering housekeeper Nelly Dean, Alison Oliver from Fennell’s previous film Saltburn playing Isabella Linton, Shazad Latif as Edgar Linton and Martin Clunes in the role of Mr Earnshaw.

Younger versions of Cathy and Heathcliff are played by newcomer Charlotte Mellington and Owen Cooper, who you might recognise from Netflix sensation Adolescence.

What can we expect from Fennell’s Wuthering Heights?

If you’ve watched Promising Young Woman or Saltburn, you’ll know Emerald Fennell isn’t here to play it safe. Judging from the teasers, expect smouldering tension (possibly of the more graphic variety), sweeping moorland visuals and a soundtrack that’s already edging towards cultural takeover.

Charli xcx has released two singles from her upcoming album, also titled Wuthering Heights and written specifically for the film. Chains Of Love and House, featuring John Cale of Velvet Underground fame, lean into the moody strings and pounding basslines that have become Charli’s signature. Both tracks come with gloriously gothic music videos that feel like short films in their own right.

And, because it wouldn’t be a Fennell release without discourse, the adaptation has already stirred controversy. Purists have criticised its departures from the source material, from the anachronistic costume glimpses to the decision to cast Elordi as Heathcliff, a character whose “dark-skinned” description and ambiguous origins have long fuelled discussion about race, class and outsiderhood in Brontë’s novel.

While Fennell has said that much of the dialogue is verbatim from the book, she has chosen to focus on the first half of the story, before Cathy’s death.

But if Fennell’s filmography has taught us anything, it’s that she never strays without purpose. Her work always smuggles in a sharper, modern parable – a commentary on the world we’re living in now – but this time dressed in gothic period dress.

Whether you are watching for the romance, the scandal or the artistry, this adaptation is likely to linger long after the credits roll.

Images: Warner Bros