Far more explicit than any previous adaptation of Wuthering Heights

Breaking news! Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights has had a test screening in Dallas and World of Reel tells all about it:

Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” held its first test screening last night in Dallas, and early impressions suggest an unusual adaptation. I’m slightly more intrigued now.

Audience reaction inside the theater was largely mixed, with some visible restlessness, while others were won over. The film, described by one attendee as aggressively provocative and tonally abrasive, leans hard into Fennell’s now-familiar brand of stylized depravity. It’s a deliberately unromantic take on Brontë’s novel, stripped of emotional nuance and full of salacious detours that serve shock value.

There’s hyper-sexualized imagery — far more explicit than any previous adaptation of this material. The film opens with a public hanging that quickly descends into grotesque absurdity, as the condemned man ejaculates mid-execution, sending the onlooking crowd into a kind of orgiastic frenzy. A nun even fondles the corpse’s visible erection. 

Later, a woman is strapped into a horse’s reins for a BDSM-tinged encounter. There are several masturbation scenes shot in that now-signature Fennell style—intimate, clinical, and purposefully discomforting. The camera lingers on suggestive textures: egg yolks running through fingers, dough being kneaded with quiet aggression, a slug sliding slowly down glass. 

Another attendee tells me that Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi deliver committed performances, with great chemistry, but the characters they portray are so cold and unlikable that even strong acting can’t create a point of connection. And I ask in return: isn’t that precisely what Brontë’s intended?

The adaptation reportedly diverges significantly from the source material, playing out much as one might expect from Fennell reinterpreting a literary classic via her increasingly polarizing lens. 

It sounds like the most unusual “Wuthering Heights” to date, and that might not be a bad thing. The last thing anyone wants is another by-the-numbers adaptation. What the next film version called for was a jolt of fresh energy, something bold and unexpected. For better or worse, it seems that’s exactly what Emerald Fennell may have brought to the table. (Jordan Ruimy)

After that, this will sound even sillier, but oh well: Bustle claims that 'Each Zodiac Sign Would Thrive In One Specific Period Piece' and apparently you can only thrive in Jane Eyre if you're a Capricorn.