Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ reportedly features nun fondling corpse’s erection

A test screening of Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of the novel Wuthering Heights has caused controversy from test audiences due to the graphic sexual scenes in the film.

• READ MORE: Emerald Fennell is well aware of her own privilege: “Class is such a fixation in this country”

The Oscar-winning writer-director’s follow up to Saltburn stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in the lead as doomed lovers Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. This week (August 4), the film underwent test screenings in Dallas, Texas, and World Of Reel reported on the audience’s reaction.

Describing the response as “mixed”, the article also shared details of the plot which feature “hyper-sexualized imagery — far more explicit than any previous adaptation of this material”.

It went on to explain: “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”.

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It continues: “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”.

Announced last year, Elordi’s casting has received a significant backlash because of Heathcliff’s ethnicity as he is described as “dark skinned” in the book. The detailing of the sexualised scenes is in keeping with Fennell’s previous work, as Saltburn featured controversial scenes such as Barry Keoghan’s character, Oliver Quick, dancing nude and drinking the bathwater of his friend Felix (Elordi).

Wuthering Heights is scheduled for release on February 13, 2026.

In April, Jacob Elordi revealed that he wanted to “take a break” from acting, until Emerald Fennell asked him to star in her new project. Elsewhere, his co-lead Margot Robbie was reportedly to be in talks to produce and star in director Tim Burton’s remake of Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman.

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