The New "Wuthering Heights" is Controversial…And That’s the Point

By: Alyssa Barca ‘26

From the moment the upcoming film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1848 novel “Wuthering Heights” was announced, the backlash has been deafening. True fans of the book, people who have never read it, and people who gave a half-hearted attempt to read it in high school English class have all rallied together in defiance of director Emerald Fennel’s latest project. Set for release on Valentine’s Day of 2026, this most recent adaptation attempt has been surrounded by controversy for its casting choices, accounts from test screenings, and, most recently, the trailer. 

A large majority of the public is outraged with the director of the project, Emerald Fennell, whose past projects include “Promising Young Woman” (2020) and “Saltburn” (2023). What the two films have in common is their focus on dark subject matter, perversions of intimacy, and depictions of obsession. Though many think that Fennell’s preceding works do not align with the adaptation of a well-loved novel, these exact themes are some of the main ones present in the book. “Wuthering Heights”, like “Promising Young Woman” and "Saltburn,” shows us how love and violence are one and the same, as well as how obsession can completely consume someone. 

Image courtesy of TV Insider.

Many fans are concerned by the perceived historical inaccuracies in the movie, as well as the addition of more explicit scenes not present in the book. However, I believe that these additions will help to explore the themes present in the novel that a more faithful adaptation could not necessarily pursue. According to The Guardian, attendees of the film’s test screening thought that Fennell’s adaptation was "aggressively provocative and tonally abrasive" and that the characters were “cold and unlikeable.” Are these things not true about the book? What this new adaptation has done is produce a reaction of shock similar to the reaction of Emily Brontë’s contemporaries when her novel was published in 1848. 

In a review from Douglas Jerrold’s Weekly Newspaper in January of 1848, one critic stated, “in “Wuthering Heights” the reader is shocked, disgusted, almost sickened by details of cruelty, inhumanity, and the most diabolical hate and vengeance.” In the July 1848 edition of Graham’s Lady’s Magazine, one reviewer wrote that the novel “is a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors.” There are dozens of other reviews similar to this one, showing how shocking the novel was at the time due to its dark nature and its unsavory characters. 

In this way, the controversy surrounding the film adaption of “Wuthering Heights” is actually historically accurate in a way that no other television or movie adaption has been able to reproduce. If Fennell’s version of “Wuthering Heights” isn’t provoking shock, discomfort, and controversy, then she isn’t being faithful to the original work by Emily Brontë. If the film unsettles us, it is honoring the novel, not straying from it.