Barry Keoghan Is Invited Into A Nest Of Vipers In The New Saltburn Trailer
Freshers' Week, as it's called in the UK, is a coming-of-age tale for young university students as they wave goodbye to their parents, put up their favorite posters in their new room (flagrantly ignoring the "no Blu-Tack" role), and awkwardly get to know their fellow students. As outlined in the new trailer for class division thriller "Saltburn" (from "Promising Young Woman" director Emerald Fennell), the awkwardness is only heightened as working-class students from state schools and future dukes and viscountesses from expensive private schools are suddenly filtered into the same classrooms.
This would-be melting pot usually separates out into individual ingredients again soon enough, but "Saltburn" sees Oxford University scholarship student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) invited into the world of wealth, privilege, and black tie dinners after a chance encounter with the affable Felix Catton ("Euphoria" star Jacob Elordi). Not wanting to return to a troubled home life, Oliver accepts the offer to stay with Felix's family at their sprawling countryside estate.
Cue an entertainingly insufferable cast of poshos played by the likes of Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, and Carey Mulligan, along with a tease of lavish parties, and an ominous shot of a coffin. Check out the new trailer for Saltburn above.
'I told you he wasn't a minger'
The trailer for "Promising Young Woman" got just about everyone hyped (shout out to that killer string arrangement of Britney Spears' "Toxic"), but the film itself proved to be rather divisive. As such, you'd think I'd have learned my lesson about getting overly hyped for one of Fennell's movies based on the trailer. It's hard to remember that lesson, though, when Rosamund Pike is deadpanning her way through lines like, "Oh, that's just given me goosebumps. Look, Pamela!" and Mulligan's Pamela is reacting to the goosebumps with an earnestly distraught, "Oh no!"
Still, "Saltburn" also has a host of rave reviews on its side, including one from /Film's own Jacob Hall, who describes it as "a gothic romance" and "a different kind of monster movie." Thrillers about inequality, class division, and sociopathy among the super-rich are the dark flip side of the classic Cinderella story, and Fennell's film looks like a delicious new addition to the genre.
"Saltburn" will get a limited release in theaters on November 17, 2023, before expanding to a wide release on November 22.