'Saltburn' is an utterly unhinged movie about haves and have-nots. It's twisted fun

There are a few scenes in “Saltburn,” Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to “Promising Young Woman,” that will doubtless make the audience gasp.

So many, in fact, that if you see it you might think, “Is that one of the scenes he’s talking about? Oh, wait, whoa, it must be this one.”

Who cares? Making an audience gasp is no great trick. (I say this with the confidence of an aficionado of bad horror movies.) Making the audience think, on the other hand, is a more difficult task. Fennell does some of that, too, but it’s probably not what audiences are going to talk about after the movie is over.

Too bad, because Fennell’s film is stronger when it’s not trying so hard to shock and settles into telling its story, which is plenty twisted enough. A dark comedy of manners, she’s amped everything up — if cameras have a caffeine-laced-with-acid filter, Fennell must have used it. And who knows what was going on while she was dreaming up the story.

What happens in 'Saltburn' movie?

Oliver Quick (an excellent Barry Keoghan) is new at Oxford in 2006, a “scholarship kid” who doesn’t fit in with all the scions of lords and ladies, who would probably consider becoming a member of the elite a step down from their station in life.

Oliver is drawn to Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), as is everyone else at Oxford. Oliver is too much of an outsider to enter into Felix’s world, something Fennell emphasizes by having Oliver watch Felix from a distance, through windows, etc. But fate in the form of a flat bicycle tire intervenes, and soon Oliver and Felix form a friendship, however fragile, smoking and boozing together, yet still existing on different social planes.

More fate — there’s a lot of fate intervening in this movie — and the next thing you know Oliver is on his way to Saltburn, the Catton family estate, for the summer. The cast of characters living and staying there could have wandered out of some Gothic horror movie that’s really a comedy, or vice versa. It’s formal (“we dress for dinner”) and unhinged. Fennell's shots evoke the proper jaw-dropping perspective anyone who didn’t grow up with priceless works of art hanging around on all the walls would bring to the place.

Carey Mulligan, who starred in “Promising Young Woman,” is hilarious as a family friend identified in the credits as “Poor Dear Pamela.” She’s fallen on hard times, maybe, and is hiding out from some Russian oligarch or other. Felix’s sister Venetia (Alison Oliver) wanders around drinking all day and saying cryptic things. Sir James (Richard E. Grant, born into the role) is the patriarch, stupid rich, and maybe just kind of stupid.

Rosamund Pike is great as a rich, nutty matriarch

Then there is Elspeth, Felix’s mother, played with delightful condescension by Rosamund Pike. (I recently rewatched “Gone Girl” and wondered why she doesn’t get more roles like this.) Her casual cruelty is a thing of beauty, a function of her complete devotion to How Things Are Done. (Don’t miss her faux outrage over the rumor that Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker wrote a song about her “when I was modeling.”) Pike is great.

Oliver navigates all this with surprising ease, at least at first. Eventually, things go floridly wrong, of course, and Keoghan brilliantly weaves Oliver through emotional minefields. There are surprising layers to the character. It’s an intriguing performance — your feelings about Oliver likely will change several times throughout the film.

I’m not sure there’s a lot more going on here than a) the ultrarich are clueless dolts and b) everyone else will do just about anything to become part of the clueless ultrarich. And it’s all so over the top, that’s all it really needs.

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'Saltburn' 3.5 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Emerald Fennell.

Cast: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike.

Rating: R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, language throughout, some disturbing violent content, and drug use.

How to watch: In theaters Wednesday, Nov. 22.

Reach Goodykoontz at [email protected]. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. X, formerly known as Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Saltburn' review: Horror movie or twisted comedy? Neither and both